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Jgonote  tie  iSal^ac 


3^onor^  tre  33al^ac 

COUNTRY  LIFE 

VOLUME  I 


LIMITED   TO  ONE   THOUSAND   COMPLETE  COPIES 


NO.     ^  ^^ 


n./..,,,.^ 


IN  THE  BENASSIS  BARN 


Gathered  in  little  groups  around  three  or  four 
candles,  some  of  the  women  were  sewing,  others 
were  spinning ;  several  were  quite  idle,  their  necks 
stretched,  their  heads  and  eyes  turned  toward  an 
old  peasant  who  was  relating  a  story. 


J^\ 


THE   NOVELS 


OF 


HONORE  DE  BALZAC 


NOW   FOR  THE   FIRST  TIME 
COMPLETELY   TRANSLATED   INTO   ENGLISH 

THE    COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

BY  G.  BURNHAM  IVES 


WITH     FIVE     ETCHINGS    BY    CHARLES     GIROUX,     AFTER 
PAINTINGS    BY    DANIEL   HERNANDEZ 


5f^L- 


IN  ONE  VOLUME 


PRINTED  ONLY  FOR  SUBSCRIBERS  BY 

GEORGE  BARRIE   &   SON,   PHILADELPHIA 


mr 


(  [l-ht-  1^^3^ 


COFYRIGHT,  1898,  BY  GEORGE  BARRIE  *  SON 


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THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 


For  wounded  hearts,  shadow  and  silence 


189967 


TO  MY  MOTHER 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  THE  MAN 

On  a  fine  spring  morning  in  the  year  1829,  a 
man  of  about  fifty  years  of  age  was  riding  on  horse- 
back along  a  mountainous  road  which  leads  to  a  large 
country-town  not  far  from  the  Grande-Chartreuse. 
This  town  is  the  chief  place  in  a  populous  canton 
circumscribed  by  a  long  valley.  A  torrent  with  a 
rocky  bed,  frequently  dry,  filled  at  this  time  by  the 
melting  of  the  snows,  waters  this  valley  compressed 
between  two  parallel  mountains,  which  command  in 
every  direction  the  peaks  of  Savoy  and  Dauphiny. 
Although  there  is.  a  general  resemblance^among  the 
landscapes  enclosed  between  the  chain  of.  the  two 
Mauriennes,  the  canton  through  which  the  stranger 
was  riding  presents  undulations  of  the  ground  and 
accidents  of  light  and  shadow  which  may  be  vainly 
sought  for  elsewhere.  Sometimes  the  valley,  sud- 
denly widening,  offers  to  the  eye  an  irregular  carpet 
of  that  verdure  which  the  constant  irrigation  due  to 
the  mountains  preserves  so  fresh  and  so  pleasant  to 
view  at  all  seasons.  Sometimes  a  saw-mill  presents 
its  humble  constructions,  picturesquely  placed,  its 
provision  of  long  fir-trees  stripped  of  their  bark,  and 
(5) 


6  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

its  water-course,  diverted  from  the  torrent  and  con- 
ducted tiirough  great  square  conduits  of  wood,  from 
the  crevices  of  which  a  sheet  of  thin  streams  issues. 
Here  and  there,  thatched  cottages,  surrounded  by 
gardens  full  of  fruit-trees  covered  with  blossoms, 
suggest  the  ideas  inspired  by  an  industrious  pov- 
erty. Farther  on,  houses  with  red  roofs,  of  flat  and 
rounded  tiles  similar  to  fishes'  scales,  represent  the 
ease  gained  by  long  industry.  Over  every  door 
may  be  seen  the  basket  suspended  in  which  the 
cheeses  are  drying.  Everywhere,  the  openings,  the 
enclosures,  are  enlivened  by  vines  embracing,  as  in 
Italy,  the  dwarf  elms,  the  leaves  of  which  are  fed  to 
cattle. 

In  some  places,  the  hills,  by  one  of  Nature's  ca- 
prices, are  brought  so  close  together  that  there  is 
no  more  room  for  mills,  or  fields,  or  thatched  cot- 
tages.    Separated  only  by  the  torrent  which  rages 
along  in  its  cascades,  the  two  high  granite  walls  rear 
themselves,  tapestried  by  firs  with  black  foliage,  and 
by  beech-trees  a  hundred  feet  high.    All  upright,  all 
oddly  colored  by  spots  of  moss,  all  varied  in  foliage, 
these  trees  form  magnificent  colonnades,  bordered 
above  and  below  the  road  by  irregular  hedges  of 
^    arbutes,  viburnum,  boxwood,  and  sweet-briar.    The 
\     living  odors  of  these  bushes  and  undergrowth  were 
(^    at  this  moment  mingling  the  wild  perfumes  of  moun- 
y   tain  nature  with  the  penetrating  scent  of  the  young 
\  shoots  of  the  larches,  the  poplars,  and  the  resinous 
y  pines.     A  few  clouds  sailed  among  the  rocks,  alter- 
nately veiling  and  revealing  the  gray  summits,  often 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  7 

as  vaporous  as  the  mists  whose  fleecy  shreds  were 
torn  upon  them.  At  every  moment  the  country-side 
varied  in  aspect  and  the  sky  in  light;  the  mountains 
changed  color,  the  slopes  their  shades,  the  valleys 
their  forms, — multiplied  images  which  unexpected 
oppositions,  whether  it  was  a  ray  of  sun  traversing 
the  tree-trunks,  whether  a  natural  clearing  or  some 
fallen  rocks,  rendered  delightful  to  the  eye  in  the 
midst  of  the  silence,  in  the  season  when  everything 
is  young,  when  the  sun  illumines  a  pure  sky.  In 
short,  it  was  a  beautiful  country,  it  was  France!       ^ 

A  man  of  tall  stature,  the  traveller  was  dressed 
completely  in  blue  cloth  as  carefully  brushed  as  was 
probably  every  morning  the  glossy  coat  of  his  horse, 
on  which  he  sat,  firm  and  upright,  like  an  old  cavalry 
officer.  If,  indeed,  his  black  cravat  and  his  doe-skin 
gloves,  the  pistols  which  filled  his  holster  and  the  ^^ 
portmanteau  well  strapped  on  his  horse's  croup,  had  \ir^ 
not  indicated  the  soldier,  his  embrowned  countenance  '^->^ 
pitted  by  the  small-pox,  but  with  regular  features 
and  characterized  by  an  apparent  indifference,  his  de- 
cided manner,  the  security  of  his  glance,  the  carriage 
of  his  head,  everything  would  have  betrayed  those 
regimental  habits  of  which  it  is  impossible  for  the 
soldier  ever  to  divest  himself,  even  after  he  has  re- 
turned to  domestic  life.  Any  other  would  have  mar- 
velled at  the  beauties  of  this  Alpine  nature,  so  smiling 
where  it  opens  into  the  great  valleys  of  France;  but 
the  officer,  who  had  doubtless  traversed  those  coun- 
tries into  which  the  French  armies  were  transported 
by  the  imperial  wars,  enjoyed  this  landscape  without 


.iX 


8  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

manifesting  any  surprise  at  these  manifold  changes. 
Astonishment  is  a  sensation  which  INapoIeOmscems 
to  have  destroyed  in  the  souls  of  his  soldiers, — thus, 
the  calmness  of  visage  is  a  certain  sign  by  which  an 
fJbserver  may  recognize  the  men  formerly  enrolled 
under  the  ephemeral  but  imperishable  eagles  of  the 
great  Emperor. 

This  man  was,  in  fact,  one  of  those  soldiers,  now 
sufficiently  rare<:Vhom  the  bullets  had  respected,  ^ 
although  he  had  served  on  all  those  battle-fields  on  ^ 
which  Napoleon  had  commanded.  His  life  had  had  in 
it  nothing  extraordinary.  He  had  fought  well,  as  a 
simple  and  loyal  soldier,  doing  his  duty  as  well  at 
night  as  in  daytime,  far  from  his  chief  as  well  as  near 
him,  never  dealing  a  useless  sabre-stroke,  and  inca- 
pable of  dealing  one  too  many.  If  he  wore  in  his 
buttonhole  the  rosette  of  the  officers  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor,  it  was  because,  after  the  battle  of  the 
Moskowa,  the  unanimous  voice  of  his  regiment  had 
designated  him  as  the  most  worthy  of  that  great  day 
to  receive  it.  Of  the  restricted  number  of  these  men 
seemingly  cold,  timid  in  self-assertion,  always  at 
peace  with  themselves,  men  whose  spirit  is  humiliated 
by  the  very  thought  of  soliciting  a  favor  of  any 
nature  whatsoever,  his  promotion  had  been  conferred 
upon  him  only  in  accordance  with  the  slow  laws  of 
seniority.  Sub-lieutenant  in  1802,  in  1829  he  was 
only  a  major,  notwithstanding  his  gray  moustaches; 
but  his  life  was  so  clean  that  no  man  in  the  army, 
were  he  a  general,  accosted  him  without  experiencing 
a  sentiment  of  involuntary  respect, — an  incontestable 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  9 

advantage  which,  perhaps,  his  superiors  did  not 
forgive  him.  In  recompense,  the  simple  soldiers 
all  vowed  to  him  something  of  that  feeling  which 
children  bear  to  a  good  mother;  for,  toward  them,  he 
knew  how  to  be  at  once  indulgent  and  severe.  Having 
been  a  soldier  like  themselves,  he  knew  all  the  un- 
happy joys  and  the  joyous  miseries,  the  pardonable 
or  punishable  going  astray  of  the  soldiers,  whom  he 
always  called  his  children,  and  whom  he  willingly 
allowed  in  a  campaign  to  take  provisions  or  forage 
from  the  civilians. 

As  to  his  private  history,  it  was  buried  in  the  most 
profound  silence.  Like  most  of  the  military  men  of 
the  epoch,  he  had  seen  the  world  only  through  the 
smoke  of  the  cannon,  or  during  the  moments  of  peace 
so  rare  in  the  midst  of  the  European  contest  sustained 
by  the  Emperor.  Had  he,  or  had  he  not,  thought  of 
marriage.?  The  question  remained  unanswered. 
Although  no  one  entertained  any  doubt  that  the  com- 
mandant Genestas  had  had  love  adventures  while 
traversing  cities  and  countries,  while  assisting  at  the 
f§tes  given  or  received  by  the  regiments,  neverthe- 
less, no  one  had  the  slightest  certainty  of  it.  Without 
being  prudish,  without  refusing  a  party  of  pleas- 
ure, without  offending  the  military  customs,  he  was 
silent  or  responded  laughingly  when  questioned  con- 
cerning his  amours.  To  these  words:  "And  you, 
commandant.?"  addressed  to  him  by  an  officer  after 
drinking,  he  replied: 

**  Let  us  drink,  messieurs!" 

A  species  of  Bayard  without  ostentation,  Monsieur 


10  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

^ . Pierre- Joseph  Genestas  thus  had  nothing  poetical  or 
romantic  about  him,  so  commonplace  did  he  seem. 
His  appearance  was  that  of  a  substantial  man.  Al- 
though his  pay  was  his  sole  fortune,  and  though  his 
retirement  was  his  only  future,  nevertheless,  like 
shrewd  old  traders  who  have  acquired  from  misfor- 
tunes an  experience  which  resembles  obstinacy,  the 
major  kept  always  in  reserve  two  years'  pay  and 
never  expended  all  his  receipts.  He  was  so  little  of 
a  gambler  that  he  looked  at  his  boots  when  in  company 
a  new  player  was  wanted  or  some  addition  to  the 
stakes  at  ecarte.  But,  if  he  allowed  himself  no  un- 
usual expenses,  he  was  not  wanting  in  any  of  the 
customary  usages.  His  uniforms  lasted  him  longer 
than  those  of  any  other  officer  of  the  regiment,  in 
consequence  of  the  care  arising  from  the  mediocrity 
of  his  fortune, — a  habit  which  had  now  become  with 
him  mechanical.  Perhaps  he  would  have  been  sus- 
pected of  avarice  had  it  not  been  for  the  admirable 
disinterestedness,  the  fraternal  readiness  with  which 
he  opened  his  purse  to  some  heedless  young  fellow 
ruined  by  a  deal  at  cards  or  by  some  other  folly.  It 
would  seem  that  he  had  formerly  lost  heavy  sums  at 
play,  so  much  delicacy  did  he  bring  to  his  obliging; 
he  did  not  consider  that  he  had  the  right  to  control 
the  actions  of  his  debtor,  and  never  spoke  to  him  of 
his  indebtedness.  A  child  of  the  troop,  alone  in  the 
world,  he  had  made  for  himself  a  country  of  the  army 
and  a  family  of  his  regiment.  Consequently,  the 
motive  of  his  worthy  economy  was  rarely  sought  for, 
pleasure  was  taken  in  attributing  it  to  the  sufficiently 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  II 

natural  desire  to  provide  for  the  comfort  of  his  old 
days. 

On  the  eve  of  becoming  lieutenant-colonel  of  cav- 
alry, it  was  to  be  presumed  that  his  ambition  consisted 
in  being  able  to  retire,  after  some  campaign,  with  the 
pension  and  the  epaulettes  of  colonel.  If  the  young 
officers  discussed  Genestas  after  drill,  they  classed  him 
among  the  men  who  have  obtained  at  college  the  prize 
of  ex-celteriCe,'*andr'who,  throughout  their  life^jjeniain 
precise,  aprl^lil^itTTourpasstonSt.useful  andjnsjgid 
as  white_^^reMf"but  the  serious  men  judged  him  very 
differently.  Often  some  look,  often  some  expression 
full  of  good  sense,  as  is  the  speech  of  the  savage, 
escaped  this  man  and  betrayed  the  tempests  of  the 
soul  within  him.  Carefully  considered,  his  calm 
forehead  revealed  the  power  of  imposing  silence  on 
the  passions  and  of  thrusting  them  down  into  the 
bottom  of  his  heart,  a  power  dearly  conquered  by  the 
habit  of  dangers  and  the  unforeseen  disasters  of  war. 
The  son  of  a  peer  of  France,  who  had  newly  joined 
the  regiment,  having  said  one  day,  when  speaking  of 
Genestas,  that  he  would  have  been  the  most  con- 
scientious of  priests  or  the  most  honest  of  grocers  : 

"Add,  the  least  fawning  of  marquises!"  he  replied, 
surveying  the  young  fop,  who  had  not  thought  him- 
self overheard  by  his  commandant. 

The  auditors  broke  out  laughing, — ^the  father  of 
the  lieutenant  was  the  flatterer  of  all  in  authority, 
an  elastic  man  accustomed  to  rebounding  over  all 
revolutions,  and  the  son  took  after  the  father.  There 
are  to  be  met  with  in  the  French  armies  a  few  of 


<r.  v^   '^'-^'' 


12  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

these  characters,  ingenuously  great  on  occasions, 
becoming  simple  again  after  the  action,  careless  of 
glory,  forgetful  of  danger;  there  are  perhaps  to  be 
met  with  a  great  many  more  than  the  defects  of 
human  nature  would  permit  us  to  suppose.  How- 
ever, we  should  be  strangely  mistaken  in  thinking 
that  Genestas  was  perfect.  Mistrustful,  given  to 
violent  outbursts  of  rage,  obstinate  in  discussions 
and  wishing  above  all  to  be  acknowledged  right 
when  he  was  in  the  wrong,  he  was  full  of  the 
national  prejudices.  He  had  preserved  from  his  life 
of  a  soldier  an  inclination  for  good  wine.  If  he  left 
the  dinner-table  in  all  the  decorum  of  his  grade,  he 
appeared  serious,  meditative,  and  he  was  not  then 
willing  to  admit  anyone  into  the  secret  of  his  reflec- 
tions. Finally,  if  he  were  sufficiently  well  acquainted 
with  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  world  and  the 
laws  of  politeness,  a  species  of  regulations  which  he 
observed  with  military  stiffness;  if  he  had  a  natural 
and  acquired  intelligence,  if  he  were  well  acquainted 
with  tactics,  manoeuvres,  the  theory  of  equestrian 
fencing  and  the  difficulties  of  the  veterinary  art,  his 
studies  had  been  prodigiously  neglected.  He  knew, 
but  vaguely,  that  Caesar  was  a  Roman  consul  or 
emperor;  Alexander,  a  Greek  or  a  Macedonian;  he 
would  have  granted  you  the  one  or  the  other  origin 
or  quality  without  discussion.  Consequently,  when 
the  conversation  was  scientific  or  historical,  he  be- 
came grave  and  confined  his  participation  in  it  to 
little  approving  nods  of  the  head,  like  a  profound  man 
who  had  attained  to  Pyrrhonism. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 3 

When  Napoleon  wrote  from  Schonbrunn,  the  13th 
of  May,  1809,  in  the  bulletin  addressed  to  the  grand 
army,  then  masters  of  Vienna,  that,  like  Medea,  the 
Austrian  princes  had  cut  the  throats  of  their  chil- 
dren with  their  own  hands,  Genestas,  newly  com- 
missioned captain,  was  not  willing  to  compromise 
the  dignity  of  his  grade  by  asking  who  was  Medea; 
he  relied  upon  the  genius  of  Napoleon,  certain  that 
the  emperor  could jjtter  only  official  statements  to 
the  grand  army  and  to  the  house  of  Austria;  he  con- 
cluded that  Medea  was  an  archduchess  of  equivocal 
conduct.  Nevertheless,  as  the  thing  might  concern 
the  military  art,  he  was  uneasy  about  the  Medea  of 
the  bulletin  until  the  day  when  Mademoiselle  Rau- 
court  revived  Medea.  After  having  read  the  an- 
nouncementT^TTe  captain  did  not  fail  to  go  in  the 
evening  to  the  Theatre  Frangais,  to  see  the  celebrated 
actress  in  this  mythological  role,  c&ncerning  which 
he  enquired  of  his  neighbors,  (^^owever,  a  man 
who,  as  a  simple  soldier,  had  hach  enough  energy 
to  learn  to  read,  to  write,  and  to  count,  naturally 
compretjended  that,  as  a  captain,  he  should  inform 

X    himself.  "^Accordingly,    since  that   period,    he    had 

/   been  reading  eagerly  the  romances  and  the  books  of 
the  day,  which  gave  him  half  information  of  which/ 
he  made  tolerably  good  use.     In  his  gratitude  to  his/ 
professors,  he  went  so  far  as  to  take  up  the  defence/ 
of  Pigault-Lebrun,  saying  that  he  found  him  instructj 

/'we  and  often  profound. 

\       This  officer,  whose  acquired  prudence  prevented 
him  from  undertaking  any  useless  proceeding,  had 


-V 


14  THE  COUNfTRY  DOCTOR 

left  Grenoble  and  was  proceeding  toward  the  Grande- 
Chartreuse,  after  having  obtained  the  day  before 
from  his  colonel  a  week's  leave  of  absence.  He  did 
not  intend  to  make  a  long  stage;  but,  deceived  from 
one  locality  to  another  by  the  mendacious  statements 
of  the  peasants  whom  he  interrogated,  he  deemed  it 
prudent  not  to  ride  farther  without  comforting  his 
stomach.  Although  he  had  but  a  slight  chance  of 
finding  a  housewife  in  her  dwelling  at  a  season  when 
every  one  was  occupied  in  the  fields,  he  stopped 
before  some  thatched  cottages  which  stood  around  a 
common  space,  thus  describing  a  sufficiently  irregular 
square  place,  open  to  all  comers.  The  soil  of  this 
family  territory  was  solid  and  well  swept,  though  cut 
by  ditches  for  manure.  Rose-bushes,  ivy,  and  tall 
grasses  were  growing  along  the  cracked  walls.  At 
the  entrance  of  the  open  space  was  a  shabby  goose- 
berry-bush on  which  some  rags  were  drying. 
>  The  first  inhabitant  that  Genestas  encountered 
was  a  pig  wallowing  in  a  pile  of  straw  which,  at  the 
sound  of  the  horse's  hoofs,  grunted,  raised  its  head, 
and  put  to  flight  a  great  black  cat.  A  young  peasant- 
girl,  carrying  on  her  head  a  bundle  of  herbs,  sud- 
denly appeared,  followed  at  a  distance  by  four  little 
brats,  all  in  rags,  but  hardy,  noisy,  with  bold  eyes, 
pretty,  brown  of  skin,  real  little  devils  who  re- 
sembled angels.  The  sunshine  sparkled  and  gave 
something  indescribably  pure  to  the  air,  to  the  cot- 
tages, to  the  dung-heaps,  to  the  dishevelled  troop. 
The  soldier  asked  if  it  were  possible  to  have  a  glass 
of  milk.     For  sole  reply,  the  young  girl  uttered  a 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 5 

hoarse  cry.  An  old  woman  suddenly  presented 
herself  on  the  threshold  of  a  cabin,  and  the  young 
peasant  passed  into  a  stable  after  having  indicated 
by  a  gesture  the  old  woman,  whom  Genestas  ap- 
proached, not  without  carefully  directing  his  horse 
so  as  not  to  injure  the  children  who  were  already 
running  around  his  legs.  He  repeated  his  request, 
which  the  good  woman  flatly  refused  to  grant.  She 
did  not  wish,  she  said,  to  skim  the  cream  off  the 
pots  of  milk  that  were  destined  for  the  butter-making. 
The  officer  replied  to  this  objection  by  promising  to 
pay  well  for  the  damage;  he  attached  his  horse  to 
the  upright  of  a  door  and  entered  the  cottage.  The 
four  children  who  belonged  to  this  woman  appeared 
to  be  all  of  the  same  age,  an  odd  circumstance  which 
struck  the  commandant.  The  old  woman  had  a  fifth, 
almost  hanging  to  her  skirts,  who,  feeble,  pale,  sickly, 
doubtless  claimed  her  greatest  cares;  consequently, 
it  was  the  well-beloved,  the  Benjamin. 

Genestas  seated  himself  at  the  corner  of  a  high 
chimney-place  without  a  fire,  on  the  mantelpiece  of 
which  was  a  Virgin  in  colored  plaster  holding  in  her 
arms  the  infant  Jesus.  A  sublime  symbol!  The 
earth  served  for  the  floor  of  this  house.  In  the  ^ 
course  of  time,  the  ground,  at  first  beaten  down, 
had  become  uneven,  and,  although  clean,  it  presented 
the  callosities  of  an  orange-rind.  In  the  hearth  were 
hung  up  a  sabot  full  of  salt,  a  frying-pan,  and  a  large 
kettle.  The  back  of  the  apartment  was  filled  by  a 
four-post  bed  furnished  with  an  open-work  valance. 
Here  and  there  were  three-legged  stools,  made  by 


I6  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

stakes  inserted  in  a  bit  of  beech-wood  plank,  a 
kneading-trough,  a  large  wooden  ladle  for  dipping 
up  water,  a  pail  and  some  earthenware  bowls  for 
milk,  a  spinning-wheel  on  the  bread-trough,  some 
stands  for  the  cheese,  black  walls,  a  worm-eaten 
door  having  an  impost  with  an  opening  for  light, — 
such  were  the  decorations  and  the  furnishing  of  this 
poor  dwelling.  Here,  then,  took  place  the  drama  at 
which  the  officer  assisted  as  a  spectator,  he  tapping 
the  floor  with  his  riding-whip  without  any  suspicion 
of  this  coming  drama. 

/  When  the  old  woman,  followed  by  her  scabby 
Benjamin,  had  disappeared  through  a  door  which 
led  into  her  milk-room,  the  four  children,  after 
having  sufficiently  examined  the  soldier,  commenced 
by  ridding  themselves  of  the  pig.  The  animal,  with 
which  they  habitually  played,  having  appeared  on 
the  threshold  of  the  door,  the  urchins  threw  them- 
selves upon  it  so  vigorously,  and  applied  such  char- 
acteristic slaps  to  it,  that  it  was  forced  to  make  a 
prompt  retreat.  The  enemy  once  outside,  the  chil- 
dren next  attacked  a  door,  the  latch  of  which,  yield- 
ing to  their  efforts,  escaped  from  the  worn  catch 
that  retained  it;  then  they  precipitated  themselves 
into  a  sort  of  fruit-closet,  where  the  commandant, 
amused  by  this  scene,  presently  saw  them  occupied 
in  gnawing  dried  plums.  The  old  woman  with  the 
parchment  visage  and  the  dirty  rags  re-entered  at 
this  moment,  holding  in  her  hand  a  pot  of  milk  for 
her  guest. 

"Ah!  the  good-for-nothings!"  she  said. 


THE   ORPHAN  ASYLUM 


An  old  woman  suddenly  presented  herself  on  the 
threshold  of  a  cabin,  and  the  young  peasant  passed 
into  a  stable  after  having  indicated  by  a  gesture  ^  the 
old  woman,  whom  Genestas  approached,  not  without 
carefully  directing  his  horse  so  as  not  to  injure  the 
children  who  were  already  running  around  his  legs. 


^}'^/^yU^/U4^x.  IS:)7  J^    •^.3#.>'.>», 


fl  > 


^'^ 


'-^^h^, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 7 

She  followed  the  children,  grabbed  each  of  them 
by  the  arms  and  threw  them  out  into  the  room,  but 
without  taking  from  them  their  prunes,  and  closed 
carefully  the  door  of  her  granary  of  abundance. 

"  There,  there,  my  little  ones,  do  be  good. — If 
one  was  not  watchful,  they  would  eat  up  the  pile 
of  prunes,  the  crazy  things!"  she  said,  looking  at 
Genestas. 

Then  she  seated  herself  upon  a  stool,  took  the 
scabby  one  between  her  knees  and  began  to  comb 
it,  washing  its  head  with  a  feminine  dexterity  and 
maternal  care.  The  four  little  thieves  remained, 
some  standing,  others  leaning  against  the  bed  or  the 
bread-trough,  all  of  them  dirty  and  running  at  the 
nose,  very  healthy  otherwise,  crunching  their  prunes 
without  saying  a  word,  but  looking  at  the  stranger 
with  a  sly  and  scornful  air. 

"Are  these  your  children.?"  asked  the  soldier  of 
the  old  woman. 

**  Excuse  me,  monsieur,  they  are  the  children  from 
the  hospital;  they  give  me  three  francs  a  month  and 
a  pound  of  soap  for  each  of  them." 

"  But,  my  good  woman,  they  must  cost  you  twice 
as  much." 

"Monsieur,  that  is  just  what  Monsieur  Benassis 
says  to  us;  but,  if  others  take  the  children  for  the 
same  price,  we  must  do  the  same.  It  is  not  every- 
one who  wants  them  who  can  have  the  children! 
you  have  to  have  the  cross  and  the  banner  to  obtain 
them.\  The  milk  we  give  them  costs  nothing,  so  that 
they  are  but  little  expense  to  us.  Moreover,  three 
2 


r 


X 


l8  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

francs,  monsieur,  that  is  a  sum.  There  is  fifteen 
francs  found,  not  counting  the  five  pounds  of  soap. 
In  our  cantons,  how  much  you  have  to  break  your 
heart  in  order  to  make  ten  sous  a  day!" 

"You  have,  then,  some  land  in  your  possession.?" 
asked  the  commandant. 

"  No,  monsieur.  I  had  some  in  the  time  when  my 
husband  was  living,  but,  since  his  death,  I  have  been 
so  unfortunate  that  I  have  been  forced  to  sell  it." 

"Well,"  said  Genestas,  "how  can  you  come  to 
the  end  of  the  year  free  of  debt  with  this  occupation 
of  feeding,  cleaning,  and  bringing  up  children  at  two 
sous  a  day.?" 

"  But,"  she  replied,  still  combing  her  little  scabby 
one,  "we  do  not  come  to  the  Saint-Sylvestre  with- 
out being  in  debt,  my  dear  monsieur.  What  would 
you  have!  the  good  Lord  allows  it.  I  have  two 
cows.  Then,  my  daughter  and  I,  we  glean  during 
the  harvest;  in  winter,  we  gather  wood;  then,  in 
the  evenings,  we  spin.  Ah!  for  example,  we  do  not 
want  to  have  every  year  a  winter  like  the  last  one. 
I  owe  seventy-five  francs  to  the  miller  for  flour. 
Luckily,  it  is  the  miller  of  Monsieur  Benassis — Mon- 
sieur Benassis,  there  is  a  friend  of  the  poor!  He  has 
never  demanded  what  was  due  him  from  anyone,  he 
will  not  commence  with  us.  Moreover,  our  cow  has 
a  calf;  that  will  also  help  us  out  a  little." 

The  four  orphans,  for  whom  all  human  protection 
was  represented  by  the  affection  of  this  old  peasant- 
woman,  had  finished  their  prunes.  They  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  attention  with  which  their  mother 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  19 

regarded  the  ofificer  while  talking  to  him  to  close  up 
in  serried  columns  in  order  to  once  more  spring  up 
the  latch  which  separated  them  from  the  good  heap 
of  prunes.  They  went  at  it,  not  as  the  French 
soldiers  go  to  the  assault,  but  silent  as  the  Germans, 
urged  on  as  they  were  by  naWe  and  unblushing 
greediness, 

"  Ah!  the  little  rogues!     Will  you  stop?  " 

The  old  woman  rose,  took  the  strongest  of  the 
four,  gave  him  a  tap  on  the  posteriors,  and  threw 
him  outdoors;  he  did  not  cry,  the  others  remained 
quite  aghast. 

"  They  give  yra  a  great  deal  of  trouble — " 

"Oh!  no,  monsieur,  but  they  smell  my  prunes, 
the  little  ones.  If  I  were  to  leave  them  alone  a 
moment,  they  would  burst  themselves." 

"You  love  them?" 

To  this  question  the  old  woman  raised  her  head, 
looked  at  the  soldier  with  a  mildly  bantering  air,  and 
replied: 

"  Do  I  love  them!  I  have  already  given  up  three 
of  them,"  she  added,  sighing;  "  I  keep  them  only  till 
they  are  six  years  old." 

"  But  where  is  your  own?" 

"  I  lost  it." 

"How  old  are  you,  then?"  asked  Genestas,  to 
undo  the  effect  of  his^iast_ques±iQD 

"  Thirty^ight,  monsieur.  Coming  next  Saint- 
Jean,  it  will  be  two  years  since  my  man  died." 

She  finished  the  toilet  of  the  little  sufferer,  who 
seemed  to  thank  her  by  a  pale  and  tender  look. 


20  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  What  a  life  of  abnegation  and  of  labor!"  thought 
the  horseman. 

Under  this  roof,  worthy  of  the  stable  in  which 
Jesus  Christ  was  born,  were  fulfilled  cheerfully  and 
without  pretence  the  most  difficult  duties  of  ma- 
ternity. What  hearts  buried  in  the  most  profound 
forgetful ness!  What  riches  and  what  poverty!  Sol- 
diers, better  than  other  men,  know  how  to  appre- 
ciate what  there  is  of  the  magnificent  in  the  sublime 
in  sabots,  in  the  Gospel  in  rags.  Elsewhere  may  be 
found  the  Book,  the  text  illuminated,  embroidered, 
ornamented,  bound  in  moire,  in  taffeta,  in  satin;  but 
here  was  certainly  the  spirit  of  the  Book.  It  would 
have  been  impossible  not  to  have  believed  in  some 
religious  meaning  of  Heaven,  on  seeing  this  woman, 
who  had  made  herself  mother  as  Jesus  Christ 
made  himself  man,  who  gleaned,  suffered,  got  her- 
self into  debt  for  these  forsaken  children,  and  de- 
ceived herself  in  her  reckoning,  without  being  willing 
to  recognize  that  she  was  ruining  herself  to  be  a 
mother.  The  sight  of  this  woman  compelled  the 
admission  of  some  sympathy  between  the  good  here 
below  and  the  intelligences  on  high;  so  the  com- 
mandant Genestas  looked  at  her,  shaking  his  head. 

"  Is  Monsieur  Benassis  a  good  doctor?  "  he  asked, 
at  length. 

"  I  do  not  know,  my  dear  monsieur,  but  he  cures 
the  poor  for  nothing." 

"It  appears,"  he  said,  talking  to  himself,  "that 
this  man  is  decidedly  a  man." 

"Oh!  yes,  monsieur,  and  a  worthy  man! — Thus 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  21 

there  are  scarcely  any  people  around  here  who  do 
not  put  him  in  their  prayers,  morning  and  even- 
ing." 

**  This  is  for  you,  mother,"  said  the  soldier, 
giving  her  some  coins.  "And  this  is  for  the  chil- 
dren," he  continued,  adding  a  crown. — "  Am  I  still 
far  from  the  house  of  Monsieur  Benassis?"  he  asked, 
when  he  had  mounted  his  horse. 

"  Oh!  no,  my  dear  monsieur,  at  the  most  a  short 
league." 

The  commandant  departed,  convinced  that  he  had 
at  least  two  leagues  to  traverse.  Nevertheless,  he 
presently  perceived  through  the  trees  a  first  group  of 
houses,  then  the  roofs  of  the  town  gathered  around 
a  steeple  which  rose  cone-shaped,  and  the  slates  of 
which  were  secured  to  the  angles  of  the  structure 
by  strips  of  tin  sparkling  in  the  sun.  This  style  of 
roof,  original  in  its  effect,  announced  the  frontiers  of 
Savoy,  where  it  is  in  common  use.  In  this  locality 
the  valley  is  wide.  Several  houses,  pleasantly  situ- 
ated in  the  little  plain,  or  along  the  torrent,  gave 
animation  to  this  well-cultivated  landscape,  fortified 
on  all  sides  by  the  mountains,  and  without  any 
apparent  outlet.  At  a  few  steps  from  this  town, 
seated  on  the  mid-slope,  looking  southward,  Genes- 
tas  stopped  his  horse  under  an  avenue  of  elms, 
before  a  troop  of  children,  and  inquired  of  them 
which  was  the  house  of  Monsieur  Benassis.  The 
children  first  looked  at  one  another,  and  examined  the 
stranger  with  the  air  with  which  they  observe  every- 
thing which  presents  itself  for  the  first  time  to  their 


22  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

eyes, — so  many  countenances,  so  much  curiosity, 
so  many  ideas.  Then  the  one  with  the  most  ef- 
frontery, the  most  laughing  one  of  the  band,  a  little 
fellow  with  bright  eyes,  with  bare  and  dirty  feet,  re- 
peated after  him,  according  to  the  habit  of  children: 

"  The  house  of  Monsieur  Benassis,  monsieur?" 

And  he  added: 

"  I  will  take  you  to  it." 

He  walked  before  the  horse,  as  much  to  acquire  a 
sort  of  importance  by  accompanying  a  stranger  as 
with  a  childish  willingness  to  oblige,  or  to  obey  the 
imperative  need  of  movement  which,  at  that  age, 
rules  the  mind  and  the  body.  The  officer  followed 
along  the  principal  street  of  the  town,  a  rocky  street, 
full  of  windings,  bordered  with  houses  constructed 
according  to  the  whims  of  the  several  owners.  There 
a  bakery  advanced  into  the  middle  of  the  public 
street;  here  a  gable  end  presented  itself  in  profile  and 
partly  barred  the  way;  then  a  stream  descending 
from  the  mountain  traversed  it  in  its  ditches.  Genes- 
tas  perceived  several  roofs  covered  with  black 
shingles,  then  more  thatched  ones,  a  few  with  tiles, 
seven  or  eight  in  slate,  doubtless  those  of  the  cure, 
of  the  justice  of  the  peace,  and  the  bourgeois  of  the 
locality.  It  was  all  the  negligence  of  a  village  out- 
side of  which  there  was  to  be  found  no  more  ground, 
which  seemed  to  end  nowhere  and  to  be  attached  to 
nothing;  its  inhabitants  appeared  to  form  but  one 
family  outside  of  the  social  movement,  and  to  be  con- 
nected with  it  only  through  the  tax  collector  or  by 
some  imperceptible  ramifications. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  23 

When  Genestas  had  gone  a  few  steps  farther,  he 
saw  higher  up  on  the  mountain  a  large  street  which 
overlooked  this  village.  There  was,  no  doubt,  an  old 
and  a  new  town.  In  fact,  when  the  commandant 
reached  a  spot  where  he  moderated  his  horse's  pace, 
he  could  readily  see  through  a  vista  the  well-built 
houses  whose  new  roofs  enlivened  the  ancient  village. 
In  these  new  habitations,  above  which  rose  an  avenue 
of  young  trees,  he  heard  the  singing  peculiar  to 
workmen  at  labor,  the  murmur  of  some  workshops,the 
rasping  of  files,  the  sound  of  hammers,  the  confused 
cries  of  several  industries.  He  noticed  the  thin 
smoke  of  the  household  chimneys  and  that  more 
abundant  from  the  forges  of  the  wheelwright,  the 
locksmith,  the  blacksmith.  At  last,  at  the  extremity 
of  the  village  toward  which  his  guide  directed  him, 
Genestas  perceived  scattered  farms,  fields  well  culti- 
vated, plantations  perfectly  well  laid  out,  and,  as  it 
were,  a  little  corner  of  Brie  lost  in  a  vast  fold  of  the 
earth,  of  which,  at  first  sight,  he  would  not  have  sus- 
pected the  existence  between  the  town  and  the 
mountains  which  terminated  the  landscape. 

Presently  the  child  stopped. 

"  There  is  the  door  of  his  house,"  he  said. 

The  officer  dismounted,  passed  the  bridle  over  his 
arm,  then,  reflecting  that  all  labor  was  entitled  to  its 
hire,  he  drew  out  some  sous  from  his  fob  and  offered 
them  to  the  child,  who  took  them  with  an  astonished 
air,  opened  great  eyes,  did  not  thank  him,  and  re- 
mained where  he  was  to  see  what  happened. 

"  In  this  locality,  civilization  has  not  made  much 


24  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  ^ 

progress,  the  religion  of  labor  is  still  in  full  observ- 
ance, and  beggary  has  not  yet  penetrated,"  thought 
Genestas. 

More  curious  than  interested,  the  soldier's  guide 
leaned  against  a  wall  breast  high  which  served  to  en- 
close the  court  of  the  house,  and  in  which  is  fixed  a 
railing  in  blackened  wood  on  each  side  of  the  pilas- 
ters of  the  gate.  This  gate,  filled  in  its  lower  part 
and  formerly  painted  in  gray,  is  terminated  by  yellow 
bars  shaped  into  lance-heads.  These  ornaments,  of 
which  the  color  has  vanished,  describe  a  crescent  in 
the  upper  part  of  each  leaf  of  the  gate,  and  come 
together  to  form  a  great  pine  cone  composed  by  the 
upper  parts  of  the  uprights  when  the  gate  is  closed. 
This  portal,  worm-eaten,  spotted  by  the  velvet  of  the 
mosses,  is  half  destroyed  by  the  alternative  action  of 
the  sun  and  the  rain.  Surmounted  by  a  few  aloes  and 
wall-parietary  growing  as  chance  might  direct,  the 
pilasters  conceal  the  stems  of  two  acacias  inermis 
planted  in  the  court,  and  the  green  tufts  of  which 
rise  in  the  shape  of  powder-puffs.  The  condition  of 
this  portal  revealed  in  the  proprietor  a  certain  care- 
lessness that  appeared  to  displease  the  officer;  he 
knit  his  brows  like  a  man  constrained  to  renounce 
some  illusion. 

We  are  accustomed  to  judge  others  from  ourselves, 
and,  if  we  complacently  absolve  them  from  our  de- 
fects, we  condemn  them  severely  for  not  having  our 
qualities.  If  the  commandant  desired  to  find  in 
Monsieur  Benassis  a  careful  or  methodical  man,  cer- 
tainly the  gate  of  his  house  revealed  a  complete 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  2$ 

indifference  in  matters  of  property.  A  soldier  con- 
cerned about  domestic  economy  as  much  as  was 
Genestas  might  thence  promptly  draw  conclusions 
from  the  portal  as  to  the  life  and  character  of  the 
unknown, — which,  notwithstanding  his  circumspec- 
tion, he  did  not  fail  to  do.  The  gate  was  half  open, 
another  carelessness!  Relying  upon  this  rustic  con- 
fidence, the  officer  entered  without  ceremony  into  the 
court,  fastened  his  horse  to  the  bars  of  the  grating, 
and  while  he  was  knotting  the  bridle,  a  neighing  was 
heard  from  a  stable  toward  which  the  horse  and  the 
rider  turned  their  eyes  involuntarily;  an  old  domestic 
opened  the  door  and  showed  his  head,  adorned  with 
the  cap  of  red  wool  in  usage  in  the  country  and 
which  bears  a  perfect  resemblance  to  the  Phrygian 
cap  with  which  Liberty  is  furnished.  As  there  were 
stalls  for  several  horses,  the  goodman,  after  having 
asked  Genestas  if  he  had  come  to  see  Monsieur 
Benassis,  offered  him  for  his  horse  the  hospitality  of 
the  stable,  looking  with  an  expression  of  tenderness 
and  admiration  at  the  animal,  which  was  a  very  hand- 
some one.  The  commandant  followed  his  horse,  to 
see  how  he  would  fare.  The  stable  was  clean,  the 
bedding  was  abundant,  and  the  two  horses  of  Benassis 
had  that  comfortable  appearance  which  makes  a  cure's 
horse  recognizable  among  all  other  horses.  A  servant- 
woman,  who  had  come  out  from  the  house  upon  the 
perron,  seemed  to  wait  officially  for  the  stranger's 
interrogations, — he  having  already  been  informed  by 
the  stableman  that  Monsieur  Benassis  was  not  at 
home. 


26  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  Our  master  has  gone  to  the  grain-mill,"  he  said. 
"  If  you  wish  to  join  him,  you  have  only  to  follow 
the  path  which  leads  to  the  field,  the  mill  is  at  the 
end  of  it." 

Genestas  preferred  seeing  the  country  to  waiting 
indefinitely  for  the  return  of  Benassis,  and  he  set 
out  on  the  path  to  the  grain-mill.  When  he  had 
passed  the  irregular  line  which  the  town  traces  on 
the  side  of  the  mountain,  he  perceived  the  valley, 
the  mill,  and  one  of  the  most  delightful  landscapes 
that  he  had  yet  seen. 

Checked  in  its  course  by  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tains, the  river  formed  a  little  lake  above  which  the 
peaks  rise  from  stage  to  stage,  their  numerous  val- 
leys suggested  to  the  eye  by  the  different  gradations 
of  light  or  by  the  greater  or  less  sharpness  of  their 
ridges,  all  clothed  in  black  firs.  The  mill,  recently 
constructed  at  the  spot  where  the  torrent  falls  into 
the  little  lake,  has  all  the  charm  of  an  isolated  dwell- 
ing which  conceals  itself  in  the  midst  of  waters, 
among  the  heads  of  a  number  of  aquatic  trees.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  river,  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain 
then  feebly  lightened  at  its  summit  by  the  red  rays 
of  the  setting  sun,  Genestas  perceived  a  dozen  aban- 
doned thatched  cottages,  without  windows  or  doors, 
their  ruined  roofs  revealing  great  openings;  the  land 
around  them  was  fields,  carefully  cultivated  and 
sown;  their  former  gardens,  converted  into  meadows, 
were  watered  by  irrigation  arranged  with  as  much  art 
as  in  Limousin.  The  commandant  stopped  mechan- 
ically to  contemplate  the  remnants  of  this  village. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  27 

Why  is  it  that  men  never  regard  ruins,  even  the 
most  humble,  without  profound  emotion?  Doubt- 
less they  are  for  them  an  image  of  misfortune,  the 
weight  of  which  is  felt  by  them  so  diversely.  The 
cemeteries  awaken  thoughts  of  death,  an  abandoned 
village  suggests  the  troubles  of  life;  death  is  a  fore- 
seen evil,  the  pains  of  life  are  infinite.  Is  not  the 
infinite  the  secret  of  the  great  melancholies?  The 
officer  had  reached  the  stony  road  to  the  mill  without 
having  been  able  to  explain  to  himself  the  abandon- 
ment of  this  village;  he  inquired  for  Monsieur  Benassis 
of  a  miller's  assistant  seated  on  the  bags  of  grain  at 
the  door  of  the  building. 

"Monsieur  Benassis  has  gone  there,"  said  the 
miller,  pointing  to  one  of  the  ruined  cottages. 

"That  village  has  then  been  burned?"  asked  the 
commandant. 

"No,  monsieur." 

"Why,  then,  is  it  in  that  condition?"  asked  Ge- 
nestas. 

"Ah!  why?"  replied  the  miller,  shrugging  his 
shoulders  and  entering  his  mill;  "Monsieur  Benassis 
will  tell  you." 

The  officer  crossed  over  a  species  of  bridge  made 
by  great  stones  between  which  the  torrent  ran,  and 
presently  arrived  at  the  house  designated.  The 
thatch  of  this  habitation  was  still  entire,  covered 
with  moss,  but  without  holes,  and  the  doors  and 
windows  seemed  to  be  in  good  condition.  On  enter- 
ing, Genestas  saw  fire  in  the  chimney-place,  at  the 
corner  of  which  was  an  old  woman  kneeling  before 


28  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

a  sick  man  seated  in  a  chair,  and  a  man  standing, 
with  his  face  turned  toward  the  hearth.  The  inte- 
rior of  this  house  formed  only  one  room,  lighted 
through  a  wretched  window-frame  furnished  with 
canvas.  The  floor  was  of  beaten  earth.  The  chair, 
a  table,  and  a  miserable  bed  constituted  all  the 
furniture.  Never  had  the  commandant  seen  any- 
thing so  simple  and  so  bare,  even  in  Russia,  where 
the  cabins  of  the  moujiks  resemble  dens.  Here 
nothing  gave  evidence  of  the  things  of  life,  there  was 
not  to  be  found  even  the  slightest  utensil  necessary 
for  the  preparation  of  the  coarsest  food.  You  would 
have  said  that  it  was  a  dog's  kennel,  without  his 
platter.  Were  it  not  for  the  bed,  a  peasant's  frock 
hung  on  a  nail,  and  sabots  stuffed  with  straw,  the 
only  clothing  of  the  sick  man,  this  cottage  would 
have  seemed  as  deserted  as  the  others.  The  kneel- 
ing woman,  a  very  old  peasant,  was  endeavoring  to 
maintain  the  sick,j«an's  feet  in  a  tub  filled  with 
brownish  water X^^When  he  heard  a  step  which  the 
sound  of  the  spurs  rendered  unusual  for  ears  accus- 
tome4  only  to  the  monotonous  walk  of  the  country 
people^^e  man  turned  toward  Genestas,  manifest- 
ing a  sort  of  surprise,  which  was  shared  by  the  old 
woman. 

"I  do  not  need,"  said  the  military  man,  "to  ask 
if  you  are  Monsieur  Benassis.  A  stranger,  impatient 
to  see  you,  you  will  excuse  me,  monsieur,  for  coming 
to  seek  you  on  your  field  of  battle,  instead  of  having 
waited  for  you  at  your  house.  Do  not  inconven- 
ience yourself,  attend  to  your  affairs.     When  you 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  29 

shall  have  finished,  I  will  tell  you  the  object  of  my 
visit." 

Genestas  half  seated  himself  on  the  edge  of  the 
table  and  was  silent.  The  fire  diffused  through  the 
cottage  a  light  clearer  than  that  of  the  sun,  the  rays 
of  which,  interrupted  by  the  summits  of  the  moun- 
tains, never  could  reach  this  part  of  the  valley.  By 
the  light  of  this  fire,  made  with  some  branches  of 
resinous  firs,  which  gave  out  a  brilliant  flame,  the 
soldier  could  see  the  face  of  the  man  whom  a  secret 
interest  constrained  him  to  seek,  to  study,  to  become 
perfectly  acquainted  with.  Monsieur  Benassis,  the 
physician  of  the  canton,  remained  with  his  arms 
crossed,  listened  coldly  to  Genestas,  returned  his 
salutation,  and  turned  again  toward  the  invalid,  not 
thinking  himself  the  object  of  an  examination  as 
serious  as  was  that  of  the  soldier. 

Benassis  was  a  man  of  ordinary  stature,  but 
broad  in  the  shoulders  and  deep  in  the  chest.  An 
ample  green  redingote,  buttoned  up  to  the  chin, 
prevented  the  officer  from  observing  the  peculiarly 
characteristic  details  of  this  personage  or  of  his  ap- 
pearance; but  the  shadow  and  the  immobility  in 
which  the  body  remained  served  to  relieve  the  face, 
which  was  then  strongly  illumined  by  the  reflection 
from  the  fire.  This  man  had  a  countenance  resem- 
bling that  of  a  satyr — ^the  same  forehead,  slightly 
arched  but  full  of  prominences  all  more  or  less  signifi- 
cative; the  same  retrousse  nose,  with  an  intelligent 
cleft  at  the  end;  the  same  prominent  cheeks.  The 
line  of  the  mouth  was  sinuous,  the  lips  were  thick 


30  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

and  red.  The  chin  protruded  abruptly.  The  eyes, 
brown  and  animated  by  a  lively  glance  to  which  the 
pearly  lustre  of  the  white  gave  a  great  brilliancy, 
expressed  passions  that  had  cooled.  The  hair,  for- 
merly black  and  now  gray,  the  deep  wrinkles  of  the 
visage,  and  the  heavy  eyebrows,  already  whitened, 
the  nose,  become  bulbous  and  veined,  the  com- 
plexion yellow  and  marbled  with  red  spots,  all  re- 
vealed in  him  his  fifty  years  of  age  and  the  rude 
labors  of  his  profession.  The  officer  could  only 
presume  upon  the  capacity  of  the  head,  now  covered 
with  a  cap;  but,  although  concealed  by  this  covering, 
it  appeared  to  him  to  be  one  of  those  heads  commonly 
called  square  heads.  Accustomed,  by  the  relations 
which  he  had  entertained  with  the  men  of  energy 
sought  by  Napoleon,  to  recognize  the  features  of 
those  who  were  destined  for  great  things,  Genestas 
was  conscious  of  some  mystery  in  this  obscure  life, 
and  he  said  to  himself,  on  seeing  this  extraordinary 
countenance: 

"  Through  what  chance  has  he  remained  a  country 
doctor?" 

After  having  seriously  observed  this  physiognomy, 
which,  notwithstanding  its  analogies  with  other 
human  countenances,  betrayed  a  secret  existence  not 
in  accord  with  its  apparently  commonplace  qualities, 
he  was  presently  led  to  share  the  attention  which 
the  physician  was  giving  to  the  sick  man,  and  the 
sight  of  this  sick  man  changed  completely  the  current 
of  his  thoughts. 

Notwithstanding  the   innumerable    sights   of  his 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  3 1 

military  life,  the  old  officer  experienced  a  shock  of 
surprise  mingled  with  horror,  in  perceiving  a  human 
face  in  which  thought  had  never  shone;  a  livid  face 
in  which  suffering  appeared  ingenuous  and  silent,  as 
on  the  face  of  an  infant  which  did  not  yet  know  how 
to  talk,  and  which  could  no  longer  cry, — in  short,  the 
entirely  animal  face  of  an  old  cretin  dying.  A  cretin 
was  the  only  variety  of  the  human  species  which 
the  major  had  not  yet  seen.  At  the  sight  of  a 
forehead  of  which  the  skin  formed  a  great  round 
fold,  of  two  eyes  similar  to  those  of  a  cooked  fish,  of 
a  head  covered  with  thin  stunted  hair  for  which 
nourishment  was  lacking,  this  head,  quite  deprived 
and  denuded  of  sensitive  organs,  who  would  not 
have  experienced,  as  did  Genestas,  a  sentiment  of 
involuntary  disgust  for  a  creature  that  had  neither 
the  graces  of  the  animal  nor  the  privileges  of  the 
man,  that  had  never  had  either  reason  or  instinct, 
and  had  never  heard  or  spoken  any  species  of  lan- 
guage.? On  seeing  this  poor  creature  coming  to  the 
end  of  an  existence  which  was  not  life,  it  seemed 
difficult  to  bestow  a  regret  upon  him;  nevertheless, 
the  old  woman  looked  at  him  with  a  touching 
anxiety,  and,  with  as  much  affection  as  if  he  had 
been  her  husband,  passed  her  hands  over  those  parts 
of  his  legs  which  the  hot  water  had  not  bathed. 
Benassis  himself,  after  having  studied  this  dead  face 
and  these  eyes  without  light,  went  and  gently  took 
the  cretin's  hand  to  feel  his  pulse. 

"  The   bath   is   not  acting,"  he  said,  shaking  his 
head,  "  let  us  put  him  back  to  bed." 


32  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

He  himself  took  up  this  mass  of  flesh,  carried  it  to 
the  couch  from  which  doubtless  he  had  taken  it,  laid 
it  down  carefully  on  it,  stretching  out  the  legs, 
already  almost  cold,  and  placing  the  hands  and  the 
head  with  all  the  attentions  which  a  mother  could 
have  for  her  child. 

"  Everything  is  over,  he  is  going  to  die,"  he 
added,  remaining  standing  by  the  side  of  the  bed. 

The  old  woman,  with  her  hands  on  her  hips, 
looked  at  the  dying,  shedding  a  few  tears.  Genestas 
himself  remained  silent,  unable  to  explain  to  himself 
how  the  death  of  a  being  so  little  interesting  could 
produce  such  an  impression  upon  him.  He  already 
partook  instinctively  of  the  boundless  pity  which 
these  unfortunate  creatures  inspire  in  the  valleys 
deprived  of  all  sunshine,  into  which  nature  has 
thrown  them.  This  sentiment,  which  degenerates 
into  a  religious  superstition  among  those  families  to 
which  the  cretins  belong,  is  it  not  derived  from  the 
most  beautiful  of  the  Christian  virtues,  charity,  and 
from  that  faith  which  is  most  conducive  to  social 
order,  the  idea  of  future  recompense,  the  only  one 
which  enables  us  to  accept  our  miseries?  The  hope 
of  meriting  eternal  happiness  aids  the  relatives  of 
these  poor  beings,  and  those  who  surround  them,  to 
exercise  on  a  large  scale  the  cares  of  maternity  in  its 
sublime  protection  incessantly  given  to  an  inert 
creature  that  at  first  does  not  comprehend  it,  and, 
later,  forgets  it.  Admirable  religion!  it  has  brought 
to  a  blind  misfortune  the  succor  of  a  blind  benevo- 
lence.    In  those  districts  in  which  the  cretins  are 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  33 

found,  the  population  believes  that  the  presence  of  a 
being  of  this  species  brings  good  luck  to  the  family. 
This  belief  serves  to  render  pleasant  a  life  which, 
in  the  heart  of  cities,  would  be  condemned  to  the  rigors 
of  a  fals0  philanthropy,  and  to  the  discipline  of  a  hos- 
pital. In  the  upper  valley  of  the^Js^re,  where  they 
abound,  the  cretins  live  in  the  open  air  with  the 
flocks  which  they  are  taught  to  watch.  At  least 
they  are  free  and  respected  as  misfortune  should  be.    ^ 

For  the  last  few  moments  the  village  bell  had 
been  tolling  at  distant,  regular  intervals  to  inform 
the  faithful  of  the  death  of  one  of  their  number.  In 
traversing  space,  this  contribution  of  religion  arrived 
faintly  at  the  cottage,  through  which  it  diffused  a 
gentle  melancholy.  Numerous  footsteps  were  heard 
on  the  road  outside,  and  announced  the  presence  of 
a  crowd,  but  a  silent  crowd.  Then  the  chanting  of 
the  Church  suddenly  broke  out  and  awakened  those 
confused  ideas  which  take  possession  of  the  most 
incredulous  souls,  obliged  to  yield  to  the  touching 
harmonies  of  the  human  voice.  The  Church  came 
to  the  succor  of  this  creature  that  did  not  know 
her.  The  cure  appeared,  preceded  by  the  cross  borne 
by  a  choir-boy,  followed  by  the  sacristan  carrying 
the  holy-water  vessel,  and  by  some  fifty  women, 
old  men  and  children,  all  come  to  join  their  prayers 
to  those  of  the  Church.  The  doctor  and  the  soldier 
looked  at  each  other  in  silence,  and  retired  into  a 
corner  to  give  place  to  the  crowd,  which  knelt  within 
and  without  the  cottage.  During  the  consoling  cere- 
mony of  the  viaticum,  celebrated  for  this  being  that 
3 


34  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

had  never  sinned,  but  to  which  the  Christian  world 
bade  adieu,  the  greater  number  of  these  gross  vis- 
ages were  sincerely  affected  to  tenderness.  Tears 
rolled  down  the  rude  cheeks  creased  by  the  sun  and 
browned  by  labor  in  the  open  air.  This  senjiment 
of  voluntary  relationship  was  quite  simple.  There 
was  no  person  in  the  commune  who  would  not  have 
pitied  this  poor  being,  who  would  not  have  given  him 
his  daily  bread; — had  he  not  found  a  father  in  every 
child,  a  mother  in  the  most  light-hearted  little  girl.? 

**  He  is  dead,"  said  the  cure. 

This  speech  excited  the  most  sincere  consterna- 
tion. The  tapers  were  lighted.  Several  persons 
wished  to  watch  through  the  night  with  the  body. 
Benassis  and  the  ofificer  went  out.  At  the  door, 
some  peasants  stopped  the  physician  to  say  to  him: 

"Ah!  monsieur  the  mayor,  if  you  did  not  save 
him,  it  was  doubtless  because  God  wished  to  recall 
him  to  Himself." 

"  I  did  my  best,  my  children,"  replied  the  doctor. — 
"You  would  not  believe,  monsieur,"  said  he  to  Ge- 
nestas,  when  they  were  at  the  distance  of  a  few  steps 
from  the  abandoned  village,  the  last  inhabitant  of 
which  had  just  died,  "  how  much  of  true  consolation 
there  is  in  the  words  of  those  peasants  for  me.  Ten 
years  ago  I  was  all  but  stoned  in  that  village,  to-day 
deserted,  but  then  inhabited  by  thirty  families." 

Genestas  put  so  visible  an  interrogation  into  the 
expression  of  his  countenance  and  into  his  gesture, 
that  the  physician  related  to  him,  as  they  walked 
along,  the  history  foreshadowed  by  this  opening. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  35 

"  Monsieur,  when  I  came  to  establish  myself  here, 
I  found  in  this  part  of  the  canton  a  dozen  cretins," 
said  the  doctor,  turning  to  indicate  to  the  officer  the 
ruined  houses.  "The  situation  of  this  hamlet  in  a 
bottom  without  any  current  of  air,  near  a  torrent 
whose  waters  come  from  the  melting  snows,  de- 
prived of  the  benefits  of  the  sun,  which  lightens  only 
the  summit  of  the  mountain,  everything  there  fa- 
vored the  propagation  of  this  frightful  malady.  The 
laws  do  not  forbid  the  pairing  of  these  unfortunates, 
protected  here  by  a  superstition  the  strength  of 
which  was  unknown  to  me,  which  I  at  first  con- 
demned, then  admired.  Cretinism  would  then  have 
extended  from  this  locality  as  far  as  the  valley. 
Would  it  not  be  a  great  service  to  the  State  to  arrest 
this  contagion,  physical  and  intellectual.?  Notwith- 
standing its  urgency,  this  benefit  might  well  cost  the 
life  of  him  who  undertook  to  bring  it  about. 

"  Here,  as  in  other  social  spheres,  in  order  to  ac- 
complish good,  it  is  necessary  to  run  against,  not  in- 
terests, but  something  more  dangerous  to  deal  with, 
religious  ideas  converted  into  superstitions,  the  most 
indestructible  form  of  human  ideas.  I  was  afraid 
of  nothing.  In  the  first  place,  I  solicited  the  post  of 
mayor  of  the  canton,  and  obtained  it;  then,  after 
having  received  the  verbal  approbation  of  the  prefect, 
I  purchased  the  removal  by  night  of  some  of  these 
unfortunate  creatures  to  the  slopes  of  Aiguebelle,  in 
Savoy,  where  there  are  many  of  them  and  where 
they  would  be  very  well  taken  care  of.  As  soon  as 
this  act  of  humanity  became  known,  I  was  held  in 


36  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

horror  by  the  entire  population.  The  cure  preached 
against  me.  Notwithstanding  my  efforts  to  explain 
to  the  most  intelligent  of  the  town  the  importance  of 
the  expulsion  of  these  cretins,  notwithstanding  the 
gratuitous  attention  which  I  gave  to  the  sick  of  the 
country,  I  was  fired  at  from  the  corner  of  a  wood.  I 
went  to  see  the  Bishop  of  Grenoble  and  requested 
from  him  the  removal  of  the  cure.  Monseigneur 
was  good  enough  to  permit  me  to  choose  a  priest  who 
could  associate  himself  with  my  works,  and  I  had  the 
happiness  to  encounter  one  of  those  beings  who  seem 
to  have  fallen  from  Heaven.  I  pursued  my  enter- 
prise. After  having  labored  with  the  intelligent,  1 
deported  at  night  six  other  cretins. 

"  In  this  second  attempt  I  had  for  defenders  some  of 
those  who  were  under  obligations  to  me,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  council  of  the  commune,  whose  avarice  I 
appealed  to  by  proving  to  them  the  costliness  of  the 
support  of  these  poor  beings,  how  profitable  it  would 
be  for  the  town  to  convert  the  lands  possessed  by 
them  without  titles  into  commons,  of  which  the  town 
had  none.  I  had  the  rich  on  my  side;  but  the  poor, 
the  old  women,  the  children,  and  some  obstinate  ones 
remained  hostile  to  me.  Unfortunately,  my  last  de- 
portation was  incompletely  carried  out.  The  cretin 
whom  you  have  just  seen  had  not  returned  to  his 
house,  had  not  been  taken,  and  found  himself  the 
next  morning,  alone  of  his  kind,  in  the  village  in 
which  there  still  remained  a  few  families,  the  indi- 
viduals of  which,  almost  imbecile,  were  at  least  ex- 
empt from  cretinism.   I  wished  to  complete  my  work. 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  37 

and  came  by  day,  in  official  costume,  to  take  this  un- 
fortunate from  his  dwelling.  My  intention  was  known 
as  soon  as  I  left  my  house,  the  friends  of  the  cretin 
hastened  before  me,  and  I  found  before  his  cottage 
an  assemblage  of  women,  of  children,  of  old  men, 
who  all  saluted  me  with  insults  accompanied  by  a 
shower  of  stones. 

"  In  the  midst  of  this  tumult,  in  which  I  would  {per- 
haps have  perished  a  victim  of  the  genuine  intoxica- 
tion which  seizes  a  crowd  transported  by  the  cries  and 
the  agitation  of  feelings  expressed  in  common,  I  was 
saved  by  the  cretin!  This  poor  being  came  out  of 
his  cabin,  uttered  his  clucking  sound,  and  appeared 
like  the  supreme  chief  of  these  fanatics.  At  this 
apparition,  the  cries  ceased.  The  idea  came  to  me 
to  propose  an  agreement,  and  I  was  able  to  explain  it 
by  favor  of  the  calm  so  happily  obtained.  My  sup- 
porters would,  doubtless,  not  dare  not  to  sustain  me 
under  these  circumstances,  their  help  was  necessarily 
purely  passive,  these  superstitious  folk  would  watch 
with  the  greatest  zeal  over  the  preservation  of  their 
last  idol,  it  appeared  to  me  to  be  impossible  to  take  it 
from  them.  I  promised,  therefore,  to  leave  the  cre- 
tin at  peace  in  his  house,  on  condition  that  no  one 
should  approach  it,  that  the  families  of  this  village 
should  cross  the  stream  and  come  to  lodge  in  the 
town,  in  new  houses  which  I  took  the  charge  of  build- 
ing, joining  to  them  lands  the  cost  of  which,  later, 
was  to  be  returned  to  me  by  the  commune. 

'*  Well,  my  dear  monsieur,  it  took  me  six  months 
to  overcome  the  resistance  which  was  made  to  the 


38  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

execution  of  this  contract,  notwithstanding  the  ad- 
vantages which  it  offered  to  the  families  of  this  village. 
The  affection  of  country  people  for  their  hovels  is  an 
inexplicable  fact.  However  insalubrious  his  thatched 
cottage  may  be,  a  peasant  is  much  more  strongly 
attached  to  it  than  a  banker  is  to  his  hotel.  Why.? 
I  do  not  know.  Perhaps  the  strength  of  feelings  is 
in  proportion  to  their  rarity.  Perhaps  the  man  who 
lives  but  little  in  thought  lives  much  in  things,  and 
the  less  of  them  he  possesses,  the  more,  doubtless,  he 
loves  them.  Perhaps  it  is  with  the  peasant  as  with 
the  prisoner — he  does  not  scatter  the  forces  of  his 
soul,  he  concentrates  them  upon  a  sole  idea,  and  thus 
attains  a  great  energy  of  feeling.  Pardon  these  re- 
flections in  a  man  who  rarely  exchanges  his  ideas. 
Moreover,  do  not  believe,  monsieur,  that  I  occupy 
myself  much  with  empty  ideas.  Here,  everything 
must  be  practice  and  action.  Alas!  the  fewer  ideas 
these  poor  creatures  have,  the  more  difficult  it  is  to 
make  them  understand  their  true  interests.  There- 
fore I  have  resigned  myself  to  all  the  minute  details 
of  my  enterprise.  Each  one  of  them  said  to  me  the 
same  thing,  one  of  those  things  full  of  good  sense 
which  do  not  admit  of  any  reply:  'Ah!  monsieur, 
your  houses  are  not  yet  built!'  *  Well,'  I  replied  to 
them,  '  promise  me  to  come  and  live  in  them  as  soon 
as  they  are  finished.* 

"Fortunately,  monsieur,  1  secured  a  decision  that 
our  town  owns  the  whole  mountain  at  the  foot  of 
which  is  situated  the  village  now  abandoned.  The 
value  of  the  wood  growing  on  the  heights  sufficed 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  39 

to  pay  for  the  lands  and  for  the  promised  houses, 
which  were  built.  When  a  single  one  of  my  recal- 
citrant households  had  moved  in,  the  others  were  not 
long  in  following.  The  benefits  which  resulted  from 
this  change  were  too  evident  not  to  be  appreciated  by 
those  who  clung  most  superstitiously  to  their  village 
without  sun,  which  is  as  much  as  to  say,  without  soul. 
The  conclusion  of  this  affair,  the  acquiring  of  the 
communal  property,  the  possession  of  which  was 
confirmed  to  us  by  the  Council  of  State,  secured  me 
great  importance  in  the  canton.  But,  monsieur,  how 
much  trouble!"  said  the  doctor,  stopping,  and  lifting 
one  hand  which  he  let  fall  again  with  an  eloquent 
gesture.  "  I  alone  know  the  distance  from  the  town 
to  the  prefecture,  from  which  nothing  issues,  and 
from  the  prefecture  to  the  Council  of  State,  in  which 
nothing  enters. — Well,"  he  resumed,  "peace to  the 
powers  that  be,  they  yielded  to  my  importunities; 
that  is  a  great  deal.  If  you  could  know  the  good 
that  may  be  done  by  a  signature  carelessly  given! — 
Monsieur,  two  years  after  having  undertaken  such 
great  little  things  and  carried  them  to  completion,  all 
the  poor  households  of  my  commune  owned  at  least 
two  cows  each,  and  sent  them  to  pasture  on  the 
mountain,  where,  without  waiting  for  the  authoriza- 
tion of  the  Council  of  State,  I  have  carried  out  a 
system  of  transverse  irrigation  similar  to  those  of 
Switzerland,  of  Auvergne,  and  of  Limousin. 

"  To  their  great  surprise,  the  townspeople  saw  ex- 
cellent pastures  spring  up  there,  and  they  obtained  a 
greater  quantity  of  milk,  thanks  to  the  better  quality 


40  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

of  the  herbage.  The  results  of  this  conquest  were 
very  great.  Everyone  imitated  my  irrigation.  The 
meadows,  the  cattle,  all  the  productions,  multiplied. 
From  that  time  I  could  without  fear  undertake  the 
amelioration  of  this  corner  of  the  earth,  yet  unculti- 
vated, and  the  civilization  of  its  inhabitants,  up  to 
this  period  deprived  of  intelligence.  Ah!  monsieur, 
we  solitary  people  are  great  talkers: — if  anyone  asks 
us  a  question,  there  is  never  any  telling  where  the 
reply  will  stop;  when  I  arrived  in  this  valley,  the 
population  was  seven  hundred  souls;  at  present,  it 
amounts  to  two  thousand.  The  affair  of  the  last 
cretin  has  secured  for  me  the  esteem  of  everybody. 
After  having  constantly  displayed  to  those  under 
my  charge  mildness  and  firmness  both  at  once,  I 
have  become  the  oracle  of  the  canton.  I  did  every- 
thing to  merit  confidence  without  soliciting  it  or  appear- 
ing to  desire  it;  only,  I  endeavored  to  inspire  in  all 
the  greatest  respect  for  my  person  by  the  exactitude 
with  which  I  fulfilled  all  my  engagements,  even  the 
most  frivolous  ones.  After  having  promised  to  take 
care  of  the  poor  being  whom  you  have  just  seen  die, 
I  watched  over  him  better  than  his  previous  protect- 
ors had  done.  He  was  nourished,  cared  for,  like  the 
adopted  child  of  the  commune.  Later,  the  inhabit- 
ants came  to  appreciate  the  service  which  I  had  ren- 
dered them  despite  themselves.  Nevertheless,  they 
still  retain  a  remnant  of  their  superstition;  I  am  far 
from  blaming  them  for  it;  has  not  their  worship  of 
the  cretin  often  served  me  as  a  text  to  urge  those 
who  are  intelligent  to  aid  the  unfortunate.-*      But 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  41 

here  we  are,"  Benassis  added,  after  a  pause,  per- 
ceiving the  roof  of  his  house. 

Far  from  expecting  from  this  listener  the  slightest 
phrase  of  eulogy  or  of  thanks,  while  relating  this 
episode  of  his  administrative  life,  he  seemed  to  have 
yielded  to  that  ingenuous  need  of  expansion  which 
those  who  live  retired  from  the  world  feel  so 
strongly. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  the  commandant  to  him,  "I 
have  taken  the  liberty  of  putting  my  horse  in  your 
stable,  and  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  excuse 
me  when  I  have  informed  you  of  the  object  of  my 
journey." 

"Ah!  what  is  it.?"  asked  Benassis,  seeming  to 
come  out  of  his  preoccupation  and  to  remember  that 
his  companion  was  a  stranger. 

His  naturally  frank  and  communicative  character 
had  led  him  to  welcome  Genestas  as  an  acquaintance. 

"  Monsieur,"  replied  the  soldier,  "  I  have  heard  of 
the  almost  miraculous  cure  of  Monsieur  Gravier,  of 
Grenoble,  whom  you  took  into  your  house.  I  come 
in  the  hope  of  obtaining  the  same  care,  without 
having  the  same  claim  to  your  kindness — how- 
ever, perhaps  I  may  merit  it!  I  am  an  old  mili- 
tary man  whose  old  wounds  leave  him  no  repose. 
You  will  perhaps  require  a  week  to  examine  the 
condition  in  which  I  am,  for  my  pains  only  return 
at  intervals,  and — " 

"Well,  monsieur,"  said  Benassis,  interrupting 
him,  "the  chamber  of  Monsieur  Gravier  is  always 
ready;  come  in — " 


42  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

They  entered  the  house,  the  door  of  which  was 
pushed  open  by  the  doctor  with  a  vivacity  which  Ge- 
nestas  attributed  to  the  pleasure  of  having  a  lodger. 

"  Jacquotte,"  cried  Benassis,  "  monsieur  will  dine 
here." 

"But,  monsieur,"  objected  the  soldier,  "would 
it  not  be  well  for  us  to  arrange  as  to  the  price? — " 

"  The  price  of  what?"  said  the  doctor. 

"Of  my  board.  You  cannot  keep  me,  me  and 
my  horse,  without — " 

"If  you  are  rich,"  replied  Benassis,  "you  will 
pay  well;  if  not,  I  wish  nothing." 

"  Nothing,"  said  Genestas,  "  seems  to  me  too  dear. 
But,  rich  or  poor,  ten  francs  a  day,  not  counting  the 
price  of  your  services,  will  that  be  agreeable  to 
you?" 

"  Nothing  is  more  disagreeable  to  me  than  to 
receive  any  price  whatever  for  the  pleasure  of  exer- 
cising hospitality,"  replied  the  physician,  knitting 
his  brows.  "As  to  my  services,  you  will  have  them 
only  if  you  please  me.  The  wealthy  cannot  pur- 
chase my  time,  it  belongs  to  the  people  of  this 
valley.  I  wish  neither  glory  nor  fortune,  I  ask  of 
my  patients  neither  praises  nor  gratitude.  The 
money  which  you  will  hand  over  to  me  will  go  to 
the  apothecaries  of  Grenoble  to  pay  for  the  medi- 
cines indispensable  to  the  poor  of  the  canton." 

Whoever  had  heard  these  words,  thrown  out 
brusquely  but  without  bitterness,  would  have  said 
inwardly,  as  did  Genestas:  "  Here  is  a  good  sort  of 
man." 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  43 

"Monsieur,"  replied  the  soldier,  with  his  usual 
tenacity,  "  I  will  give  you,  then,  ten  francs  a  day, 
and  you  will  do  with  them  whatever  you  like.  This 
being  settled,  we  shall  understand  each  other  better," 
he  added,  taking  the  doctor's  hand  and  grasping  it 
with  an  infectious  cordiality.  "  Notwithstanding  my 
ten  francs,  you  will  see  very  well  that  I  am  not  an 
Arab." 

After  this  contest,  during  which  there  was  not  on 
the  part  of  Benassis  the  slightest  desire  to  appear 
either  generous  or  philanthropic,  the  pretended  sick 
man  entered  the  house  of  his  physician,  in  which 
everything  was  found  to  be  in  conformity  with  the 
dilapidation  of  the  gate  and  the  garments  of  the 
owner.  The  smallest  things  there  bore  witness  to 
the  most  profound  indifference  to  whatever  was  not 
of  essential  utility.  Benassis  conducted  Genestas 
through  the  kitchen,  the  shortest  way  to  the  dining- 
room.  If  this  kitchen,  smoked  like  that  of  an  inn, 
was  furnished  with  utensils  in  sufficient  number, 
this  luxury  was  the  work  of  Jacquotte,  an  old  servant- 
maid  of  the  cure,  who  said  we,  and  reigned  as  a 
sovereign  over  the  physician's  household.  If  there 
were  lengthwise  on  the  mantel  of  the  chimney  a 
warming-pan  well  polished,  Jacquotte  probably  liked 
to  sleep  warm  in  winter,  and,  in  consequence, 
warmed  the  sheets  of  her  master,  who,  she  said, 
thought  of  nothing;  but  Benassis  had  taken  her  in 
consequence  of  that  which  would  have  been  for  any 
other  an  intolerable  defect.  Jacquotte  wished  to 
rule  in  the  household,  and  the  doctor  had  wished 


44  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

to  find  a  woman  who  would  rule  in  his  house.  Jac- 
quotte  bought,  sold,  mended,  changed,  placed  and 
displaced,  all  according  to  her  own  good  pleasure; 
never  did  her  master  make  any  observation  to  her. 
Thus  Jacquotte  administered  uncontrolled  the  court, 
the  stable,  the  man-servant,  the  kitchen,  the  house, 
the  garden,  and  the  master.  On  her  own  author- 
ity, the  linen  was  changed,  the  laundering  done,  and 
the  provisions  stored.  She  decided  upon  the  bring- 
ing home  and  the  death  of  the  pigs,  scolded  the  gar- 
dener, arranged  the  menu  of  the  dejeuner  and  the 
dinner,  went  from  the  cellar  to  the  garret,  from  the 
garret  to  the  cellar,  sweeping  out  everything  according 
to  her  own  whims,  and  finding  nothing  to  resist  her. 
Benassis  had  desired  only  two  things, — to  dine  at  six 
o'clock,  and  to  expend  only  a  certain  sum  a  month. 

A  woman  who  is  obeyed  by  all  is  always  singing; 
therefore  Jacquotte  laughed,  imitated  the  nightingale 
on  the  stairways,  always  humming  when  she  was 
not  singing,  and  singing  when  she  was  not  humming. 
Naturally  clean,  she  kept  the  house  clean.  If  her 
taste  had  been  different.  Monsieur  Benassis  would 
have  been  very  unhappy,  she  said,  for  the  poor  man 
was  so  little  observing  that  he  could  be  made  to  eat 
cabbages  for  partridges;  had  it  not  been  for  her,  he 
would  frequently  have  kept  the  same  shirt  on  for  a 
week  at  a  time.  But  Jacquotte  was  an  indefatigable 
folder  of  linen,  naturally  a  polisher  of  furniture, 
enamored  of  a  cleanliness  quite  ecclesiastical,  the 
most  painstaking,  the  most  shining,  the  most  sweet- 
smelling  of  cleanlinesses.     A  sworn  enemy  of  dust, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  45 

she  dusted,  washed,  whitened  ceaselessly.  The 
condition  of  the  exterior  gate  gave  her  lively  pain. 
For  the  last  ten  years  she  had  drawn  from  her 
master  on  the  first  of  every  month  the  promise  to 
have  this  gate  renewed,  to  have  the  walls  of  the 
house  repainted,  and  everything  arranged  nicely,  and 
monsieur  had  not  yet  kept  his  word.  Therefore, 
when  she  was  deploring  the  profound  carelessness 
of  Benassis,  rarely  did  she  fail  to  pronounce  this  sac- 
ramental phrase  by  which  were  terminated  all  her 
eulogies  of  her  master: 

"You  cannot  say  that  he  is  stupid,  since  he  does 
almost  miracles  in  the  neighborhood;  but  he  is  some- 
times stupid  all  the  same,  so  stupid  that  you  have  to 
put  everything  in  his  hand,  like  an  infant!" 

Jacquotte  loved  the  house  like  a  thing  of  her  own. 
Moreover,  after  having  lived  in  it  for  twenty-two 
years,  had  she  not  the  right  to  cherish  illusions.? 
When  he  came  into  the  country,  Benassis,  having 
found  this  house  for  sale  in  consequence  of  the  death 
of  the  cure,  had  bought  everything,  walls  and 
ground,  furniture,  utensils,  wine,  chickens,  the  old 
timepiece  with  figures,  the  horse,  and  the  servant- 
maid.  Jacquotte,  the  model  of  the  species  cook, 
displayed  a  stout  body  invariably  enveloped  in  a 
brown  calico,  spotted  with  red  dots,  laced,  tightened 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  it  seem  as  if  the  stuff 
would  crack  at  the  least  movement.  She  wore  a 
round,  pleated  cap,  beneath  which  her  rather  pallid 
face,  with  a  double  chin,  appeared  even  whiter  than 
it  was.     Petite,  active,  with  a  quick  and  dimpled 


46  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

hand,  Jacquotte  talked  loud  and  continuously.  If 
she  were  silent  for  a  moment,  and  took  hold  of  the 
corner  of  her  apron  to  lift  it  triangularly,  this  gesture 
announced  some  long  remonstrance  addressed  to  her 
master  or  the  man-servant.  Of  all  the  cooks  of  the 
kingdom,  Jacquotte  was  certainly  the  happiest.  To 
render  her  happiness  as  complete  as  a  happiness  can 
be  here  below,  her  vanity  found  itself  ceaselessly 
gratified,  the  town  accepted  her  as  an  intermediate 
authority  placed  between  the  mayor  and  the  rural 
guard. 

On  entering  the  kitchen  the  master  found  no  one 
there. 

"Where  the  devil  have  they  gone.?'*  said  he. — 
"  Pardon  me,"  he  added,  turning  to  Genestas,  "for 
bringing  you  in  this  way.  The  entrance  of  honor  is 
by  the  garden,  but  I  am  so  little  accustomed  to 
receiving  company,  that — Jacquotte!" 

To  this  name,  uttered  almost  imperiously,  a 
woman's  voice  replied  from  the  interior  of  the  house. 
A  moment  later  Jacquotte  took  the  offensive  by 
calling  in  her  turn  Benassis,  who  went  promptly 
into  the  dining-room. 

"There  you  are,  monsieur!"  she  said;  "you 
never  do  any  other  way.  You  always  invite  com- 
pany to  dinner  without  giving  me  notice,  and  you 
think  that  everything  is  arranged  when  you  have 
called  out:  'Jacquotte!'  Are  you  not  going  to  receive 
monsieur  in  the  kitchen?  Was  it  not  necessary  to 
open  the  salon,  to  light  the  fire  in  it?  Nicole  is  there 
and  is  going  to  arrange  everything.     Meanwhile, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  47 

walk  your  monsieur  about  in  the  garden  for  a  mo- 
ment: that  will  amuse  him,  that  man;  if  he  likes 
pretty  things,  show  him  the  late  monsieur's  row  of 
witch-elms, — 1  shall  have  time  to  prepare  every- 
thing, the  dinner,  the  service,  and  the  salon." 

"Yes.  But,  Jacquotte,"  replied  Benassis,  "this 
monsieur  is  going  to  stay  here.  Do  not  forget  to 
give  a  look  at  Monsieur  Gravier's  chamber,  to  see  to 
the  linen  and  everything,  to — " 

"You  are  not  going  to  meddle  with  the  linen  just 
now,"  replied  Jacquotte.  "  If  he  sleeps  here,  I  know 
very  well  what  must  be  done  for  him.  You  have 
not  even  been  into  Monsieur  Gravier's  chamber  for 
ten  months.  There  is  nothing  to  see  there,  it  is  as 
clean  as  my  eye. — He  is  then  going  to  live  here,  this 
monsieur.?  "  she  added,  in  a  softened  tone. 

"Yes." 

"  For  a  long  time.?" 

"  Upon  my  word,  I  do  not  know.  But  what  dif- 
ference does  that  make  to  you.?" 

"Ah!  what  difference  does  that  make  to  me, 
monsieur.?  Ah!  well,  what  difference  does  that 
make  to  me.?  Here  is,  indeed,  another!  And  the 
provisions,  and  everything,  and — " 

Without  continuing  the  flood  of  words,  with  which, 
on  any  other  occasion,  she  would  have  assailed  her 
master  in  reproach  for  his  want  of  confidence,  she 
followed  him  into  the  kitchen.  On  learning  that  it 
was  a  question  of  a  lodger,  she  was  impatient  to  see 
Genestas,  to  whom  she  made  an  obsequious  rever- 
ence while  examining  him  from  head  to  foot.     The 


48  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

countenance  of  the  soldier  had  at  this  monnient  a 
melancholy  and  thoughtful  expression  which  gave 
him  a  harsh  appearance;  the  colloquy  between  the 
servant  and  the  master  seemed  to  him  to  reveal  in 
the  latter  a  nullity  which  caused  him,  though  with 
regret,  to  modify  the  high  opinion  which  he  had 
formed  when  admiring  his  persistency  in  saving 
this  little  country-side  from  the  miseries  of  cretin- 
ism. 

"  He  does  not  please  me,  this  individual!  "  thought 
Jacquotte. 

"  If  you  are  not  fatigued,  monsieur,"  said  the 
physician  to  his  pretended  patient,  "  we  will  take  a 
turn  in  the  garden  before  dinner." 

"Willingly,"  replied  the  commandant. 

They  crossed  the  dining-room  and  entered  the 
garden  by  a  sort  of  antechamber  situated  at  the 
foot  of  the  stairway,  which  separated  the  dining- 
room  from  the  salon.  This  apartment,  closed  by  a 
great  glass  door,  opened  on  the  stone  perron,  the 
ornament  of  the  garden  facade  of  the  house.  Divided 
into  four  great  equal  squares  by  alleys  bordered  with 
boxwood  which  formed  a  cross,  this  garden  was 
terminated  by  a  thick  hedge  of  witch-elms,  the  pride 
of  the  former  proprietor.  The  soldier  seated  himself 
on  a  bench  of  worm-eaten  wood,  without  noticing  the 
trellises,  or  the  wall-fruit,  or  the  vegetables,  of  which 
Jacquotte  took  such  great  care,  following  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  ecclesiastic  gourmand  to  whom  this 
precious  garden  owed  its  origin,  indifferent  enough 
as  it  was  to  Benassis. 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  49 

Abandoning  the  commonplace  conversation  which 
he  had  begun,  the  commandant  said  to  the  doctor: 

"  What  was  it  that  you  did,  monsieur,  in  order  to 
triple  in  ten  years  the  population  of  this  valley  in 
which  you  found  seven  hundred  souls,  and  which, 
as  you  say,  includes  to-day  more  than  two  thou- 
sand?" 

"  You  are  the  first  person  who  has  asked  me  that 
question,"  replied  the  physician.  **  If  I  have  had  as 
my  object  the  bringing  this  little  corner  of  land  into 
its  full  productiveness,  the  press  of  my  busy  life  has 
not  left  me  the  leisure  to  reflect  upon  the  manner  by 
which  I  have,  on  a  large  scale,  like  the  begging  friar, 
made  soup  of  pebbles.  Monsieur  Gravier  himself, 
one  of  our  benefactors,  to  whom  I  have  been  able  to 
render  the  service  of  curing  him,  did  not  think  of 
the  theory  while  traversing  with  me  our  mountains 
to  see  on  them  the  practical  results." 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence,  during  which 
Benassis  meditated,  without  noticing  the  piercing 
look  by  which  his  guest  endeavored  to  penetrate 
him. 

"  How  was  that  done,  my  dear  monsieur.?"  he 
went  on;  "why,  naturally,  and  in  virtue  of  a  social 
law  of  attraction  between  the  necessities  which  we 
create  for  ourselves  and  the  methods  of  satisfying 
them.  Everything  is  in  that.  People  without  wants 
are  poor.  When  I  came  to  establish  myself  in  this 
town,  there  were  counted  in  it  a  hundred  and  thirty 
families  of  peasants,  and,  in  the  valley,  about  two 
hundred  hearths.  The  authorities  of  the  country, 
4 


50  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

in  keeping  with  the  public  poverty,  consisted  of 
^maybr  who  could  not  write,  and  of  an  associate,  a 
farmer,  living  at  a  distance  from  the  commune;  of  a 
justice  of  the  peace,  a  poor  devil  living  on  his  fees, 
and  obliged  to  leave  the  drawing  up  of  documents  to 
his  clerk,  another  unfortunate,  scarcely  in  a  condi- 
tion to  comprehend  his  office.  The  old  cure,  having 
died  at  the  age  of  seventy,  hi^vicar,  an  un instructed 
man,  came  to  succeed  him.  v  These  individuals  com- 
prised tlje  intelligence  of  the  country  and  gov- 
erned it.  , 

"  In  the  midst  of  this  beautiful  nature,  the  inhabit- 
ants dwelt  in  filth  and  subsisted  upon  potatoes  and 
the  products  of  their  dairies;  the  cheeses,  which  the 
greater  number  of  them  carried  in  little  baskets  to 
Grenoble  and  its  environs,  constituted  the  only 
produce  from  which  they  drew  a  little  money.  The 
richest,  or  the  least  indolent,  sowed  some  buckwheat 
for  the  consumption  of  the  town,  sometimes  ^barley 
or  oats,  but  never  wheat.  The  only  manufacturer 
iiTlhe  country  was  the  mayor,  who  owned  a  saw- 
mill, and  bought  at  a  low  price  the  cuttings  of  the 
woods  to  retail  them.  The  want  of  roads  compelled 
him  to  transport  his  trees,  one  by  one,  in  the  fine 
season,  dragging  them  with  great  difiiculty,  by  means 
of  a  chain  attached  to  the  harness  of  his  horses,  and 
terminated  in  an  iron  cramp  buried  in  the  wood.  To 
go  to  Grenoble,  either  on  horseback  or  on  foot,  it 
was  necessary  to  take  a  broad  path  which  crossed 
the  top  of  the  mountains,  the  valley  was  impassable. 
From  here  to  the  first  village  which  you  saw  on 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  5 1 

entering  the  canton,  the  handsome  road  by  which  you 
doubtless  came  was  at  all  seasons  nothing  but  a  miry 
track.  No  political  event,  no  revolution  had  ever 
taken  place  in  this  inaccessible  region,  completely 
outside  the  social  movement.  The  name  of  Napoleoli 
alone  had  penetrated  here;  it  is  here  a  religion, 
thanks  to  two  or  three  soldiers  of  the  country  re- 
turned to  their  firesides,  and  who,  in  the  long 
evenings,  relate  to  these  simple  people  fabulous 
adventures  of  this  man  and  his  armies.  This  return 
is,  moreover,  an  inexplicable  phenomenon.  Before 
my  arrival,  the  young  men  who  went  off  to  the  army 
all  remained  there.  This  fact  depicts  clearly  enough 
the  poverty  of  the  country  to  render  it  unnecessary 
for  me  to  describe  it  to  you. 

"This,  monsieur,  was  the  condition  in  which  I  found 
this  canton,  with  which  were  connected,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  mountains,  several  communes,  well  culti- 
vated, sufficiently  happy,  and  almost  rich.  I  will 
not  speak  to  you  of  the  thatched  cottages  of  the 
town,  veritable  stables,  in  which  animals  and  people 
were  then  tumbled  together,  pell-mell.  I  passed 
through  here  in  returning  from  the  Grande-Char- 
treuse. Finding  no  inn,  I  was  obliged  to  take 
lodgings  with  the  vicar,  who  was  temporarily  inhab- 
iting this  house,  then  for  sale.  By  putting  question 
after  question,  I  obtained  a  superficial  knowledge  of 
the  deplorable  condition  of  this  country,  of  which  the 
beautiful  climate,  the  excellent  soil,  and  the  natural 
productions  had  filled  me  with  admiration.  Mon- 
sieur, I  was  at  that  time  seeking  to  make  for  myself 


52  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

a  life  other  than  that  of  which  sorrow  had  made  a 
burden  to  me.  There  suddenly  came  into  my  soul 
one  of  those  thoughts  which  God  sends  to  us  to 
make  us  accept  our  misfortunes.  I  resolved  to  edu- 
cate this  country  as  a  preceptor  educates  a  child. 
Do  not  give  me  credit  for  my  benevolence;  1  was  too 
much  actuated  by  the  imperative  need  of  distraction 
which  I  felt.  I  therefore  endeavored  to  employ  the 
remainder  of  my  days  in  some  arduous  enterprise. 
The  changes  to  be  introduced  into  this  canton,  which 
nature  had  made  so  rich,  and  which  man  rendered 
so  poor,  would  occupy  a  lifetime;  they  tempted  me 
by  the  very  difficulty  of  bringing  them  about. 

"As  soon  as  I  was  certain  of  obtaining  the  house 
of  the  cure  and  a  good  deal  of  idle  and  unprofitable 
land  at  a  low  price,  I  vowed  myself  religiously  to  the 
condition  of  country  physician,  the  last  of  all  those 
which  a  man  thinks  of  assuming  in  his  own  land.  1 
wished  to  become  the  friend  of  the  poor  without  ex- 
pecting from  them  the  slightest  recompense.  Oh!  I 
did  not  give  myself  up  to  any  illusions,  neither  con- 
cerning the  character  of  the  country  people  nor  the 
obstacles  to  be  encountered  in  endeavoring  to  ame- 
liorate the  condition  of  men  or  things.  1  have  not 
made  any  idylls  concerning  my  people,  I  have  ac- 
cepted them  for  what  they  are — poor  peasants — 
neither  entirely  good  nor  entirely  wicked,  to  whom 
a  constant  labor  permits  no  yielding  to  sentiments, 
but  who  sometimes  feel  keenly.  In  short,  I  compre- 
hended, above  all,  that  I  could  act  upon  them  only 
through  calculations  of  self-interest  and  of  immediate 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  53 

benefit.  All  peasants  are  children  of  Saint  Thomas, 
the  doubting  apostle:  they  always  wish  for  facts  to 
support  words. 

"You  will,  perhaps,  laugh  at  my  debut,  mon- 
sieur," resumed  the  doctor,  after  a  pause.  "  I  com- 
menced this  difficult  work  by  a  basket-manufactory. 
These  poor  people  purchased  in  Grenoble  their  little 
wicker-crates  for  their  cheeses  and  the  indispensable 
basket-work  for  their  miserable  commerce.  I  sug- 
gested to  an  intelligent  young  man  to  take,  on  a  lease, 
along  the  torrent,  a  large  portion  of  the  shore  which 
the  alluvial  deposits  enrich  annually,  and  where  the 
osiers  might  very  well  grow.  After  having  computed 
the  quantity  of  basket-work  consumed  by  the  can- 
ton, 1  went  to  dislodge  from  Grenoble  some  young 
workman  without  any  pecuniary  resources,  a  skilful 
worker.  When  I  had  found  him,  I  easily  persuaded 
him  to  establish  himself  hereby  promising  to  advance 
him  the  price  of  the  osiers  necessary  for  his  manu- 
facture until  my  planter  of  willows  was  able  to  fur- 
nish them  to  him.  I  persuaded  him  to  sell  his  baskets 
under  the  Grenoble  price,  while  making  them  better. 
He  understood  me.  The  osiers  and  the  willow- 
work  constituted  a  speculation  the  results  of  which 
would  not  be  appreciated  till  after  four  years.  You 
are  doubtless  aware  that  the  osier  is  not  good  to  cut 
till  it  is  three  years  old. 

"  During  his  first  campaign,  my  basket-maker  lived 
and  found  his  provisions  as  perquisites.  He  soon 
after  married  a  woman  of  Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, 
who  had  a  little  money.     He  then  built  himself  a 


54  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

house,  healthful,  well-aired,  the  site  of  which  had 
been  selected,  the  arrangements  made,  according  to 
my  advice.  What  a  triumph,  monsieur!  I  had 
created  an  industry  in  the  town,  1  had  brought  to  it  a 
producer  and  several  workpeople.  You  will  consider 
my  delight  childish? — During  the  first  days  of  the 
establishment  of  my  basket-maker,  I  never  passed 
before  his  shop  without  feeling  the  beating  of  my 
heart  quickened.  When,  in  his  new  house,  with 
shutters  painted  in  green,  and  at  the  door  of  which 
is  a  bench,  a  vine,  and  bunches  of  osiers,  I  saw  a 
woman,  clean,  well-dressed,  nursing  a  great  infant, 
pink  and  white,  in  the  midst  of  workmen  all  cheerful, 
singing,  actively  constructing  their  wares,  and  under 
the  direction  of  a  man  who,  formerly  poor  and  pallid, 
now  breathed  happiness,  I  admit  to  you,  monsieur,  I 
could  not  resist  the  pleasure  of  making  myself  a 
basket-maker  for  a  moment  by  entering  the  shop  to 
enquire  after  their  affairs,  and  I  gave  myself  up  to  a 
contentment  which  I  should  not  know  how  to  describe. 
1  was  joyous  with  the  joy  of  those  people  and  of  my 
own. 

"  The  house  of  this  man,  the  first  who  believed 
firmly  in  me,  became  all  my  hope.  Was  it  not  the 
future  of  this  poor  country,  monsieur,  which  already 
I  carried  in  my  heart,  as  the  wife  of  the  basket-maker 
carried  in  hers  her  first  nursling.? — I  had  to  bring  many 
things  to  pass,  I  ran  against  very  many  prejudices. 
I  encountered  a  violent  opposition  instigated  by  the 
ignorant  mayor,  whose  place  I  had  taken,  whose  in- 
fluence was  disappearing  before  mine;  1  wished  to 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  55 

make  him  my  associate  and  the  accomplice  of  my 
benefactions.  Yes,  monsieur,  it  was  in  this  head,  the 
hardest  of  all,  that  1  endeavored  to  diffuse  the  first 
enlightenment.  I  took  hold  of  my  man  both  by  his 
self-love  and  by  his  own  interests.  For  six  months 
we  dined  together,  and  I  gave  him  a  half  interest  in 
my  plans  of  amelioration.  Very  many  would  have 
seen  in  this  necessary  friendship  the  most  hopelessly 
wearying  part  of  my  task;  but  was  not  this  man  an 
instrument,  and  the  most  valuable  of  all  ?  Bad  luck 
to  him  who  despises  his  instrument,  or  who  even 
throws  it  carelessly  aside!  Would  I  not  have  been, 
moreover,  very  inconsistent  if,  desiring  to  better  a 
country,  1  had  recoiled  before  the  idea  of  bettering 
a  man.?  The  surest  means  of  bringing  good  fortune 
is  a  highway.  If  we  obtained  from  the  municipal 
council  an  authorization  to  construct  a  good  road  from 
here  to  the  road  to  Grenoble,  my  associate  was  the 
first  to  profit  by  it,  for,  instead  of  dragging,  with  great 
trouble,  his  trees  over  bad  paths,  he  could,  by  means 
of  a  good  cantonal  road,  transport  them  with  facility, 
undertake  a  large  business  in  lumber  of  all  kinds,  and 
earn,  not  six  hundred  miserable  francs  a  year,  but 
handsome  sums  which  would  give  him  one  day  a  cer- 
tain fortune. 

**  Finally  convinced,  this  man  became  my  proseljrte. 
During  a  whole  winter  my  ex-mayor  went  to  drink 
at  the  inn  with  his  friends,  and  was  able  to  demon- 
strate to  our  townsmen  that  a  good  carriage-road 
would  be  a  source  of  fortune  for  the  country  by  ena- 
bling everyone  to  communicate  freely  with  Grenoble. 


56  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

When  the  municipal  council  had  voted  for  the  road,  I 
obtained  from  the  prefect  some  money  from  the 
charitable  funds  of  the  department  in  order  to  pay 
for  the  means  of  transportation,  which  the  commune 
was  unable  to  undertake  through  lack  of  carts. 
Finally,  in  order  to  bring  this  great  work  to  a  termi- 
nation more  promptly  and  make  its  results  appre- 
ciated immediately  by  the  ignorant,  who  murmured 
against  me,  saying  that  I  wished  to  re-establish  the 
forced  peasant-labor  of  the  old  seigneurs,  on  every 
Sunday  of  the  first  year  of  my  administration  I 
transported  the  entire  population  of  the  town,  will- 
ingly or  by  force,  women,  children,  and  even  old 
men,  to  the  top  of  the  mountain,  where  I  had  traced 
out  myself,  on  an  excellent  foundation,  the  high-road 
that  leads  from  our  village  to  the  road  to  Grenoble. 
Abundant  materials  very  fortunately  were  to  be 
found  along  this  route.  This  long  enterprise  required 
of  me  a  great  deal  of  patience.  Sometimes  some  of 
them,  ignorant  of  the  laws,  refused  this  service  in 
kind;  sometimes  others,  wanting  for  bread,  could  not 
really  afford  to  lose  a  day;  it  was  therefore  necessary 
to  distribute  grain  to  these,  and  to  calm  the  others 
by  friendly  words. 

"  However,  when  we  had  completed  two-thirds  of 
this  road,  which  covers  about  two  leagues  of  the 
country-side,  its  advantages  had  become  so  well 
recognized  by  the  inhabitants  that  the  last  third  was 
completed  with  an  ardor  which  surprised  me.  I  en- 
riched the  future  of  the  commune  by  planting  a 
double  row  of  poplars  along  each  of  the  side-ditches. 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  57 

To-day  these  trees  are  almost  a  fortune  already,  and 
give  the  appearance  of  a  royal  road  to  our  highway, 
always  dry  in  consequence  of  its  situation,  and  so 
well  constructed,  moreover,  that  it  costs  scarcely  two 
hundred  francs  a  year  to  maintain  it;  I  will  show  it 
to  you,  for  you  have  not  seen  it, — you  came  here 
doubtless  by  the  pretty  lower  road,  another  route 
which  the  inhabitants  wished  to  make  themselves, 
three  years  ago,  in  order  to  open  communications 
with  the  establishments  which  were  then  being  set 
up  in  the  valley.  Thus,  monsieur,  three  years  ago, 
the  good  public  sense  of  this  town,  once  without 
intelligence,  had  acquired  ideas  which,  five  years 
before,  a  traveller  would  perhaps  have  despaired  of 
inculcating.     But  to  proceed. 

"The  establishment  of  my  basket-maker  was  a 
fruitful  example  given  to  this  poor  population.  If 
the  road  was  to  be  the  most  direct  cause  of  the 
future  prosperity  of  the  town,  it  was  necessary  to 
excite  all  the  primary  industries  in  order  to  make 
fruitful  these  two  germs  of  comfort  and  luxury. 
While  aiding  the  planter  of  osier  beds  and  the 
maker  of  baskets,  while  constructing  my  road,  I 
continued  my  work  by  insensible  degrees.  I  had 
two  horses;  the  lumber-dealer,  my  associate,  had 
three;  they  could  be  shod  only  at  Grenoble  when 
they  went  there;  I  therefore  engaged  a  blacksmith, 
who  knew  a  little  of  the  veterinary  art,  to  come  here, 
promising  him  plenty  of  work.  I  encountered  on 
the  same  day  an  old  soldier  sufficiently  in  trouble 
about  his  position,  whose  whole  property  consisted 


58  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

of  a  pension  of  a  hundred  francs,  who  knew  how 
to  read  and  write;  I  gave  him  the  place  of  secretary 
to  the  mayor;  by  a  lucky  chance,  I  found  him  a 
wife,  and  his  dreams  of  happiness  were  accom- 
plished. Monsieur,  houses  were  required  for  these 
two  new  families,  for  that  of  my  basket-maker  and 
for  the  twenty-two  families  which  abandoned  the 
cretin  village.  Twelve  other  households,  the  heads  of 
which  were  workmen, — producers  and  consumers, — 
then  came  to  establish  themselves  here, — masons, 
carpenters,  tilers,  joiners,  locksmiths,  glaziers,  who 
had  work  for  a  long  time  ahead;  would  they  not 
have  to  construct  their  own  houses  after  having  built 
those  of  others.?  would  they  not  bring  laborers  with 
them  ? 

"During  the  second  year  of  my  administration, 
seventy  houses  were  built  in  the  commune.  One 
production  required  another.  In  peopling  the  town, 
I  had  created  new  necessities,  unknown  up  to  this 
time  to  these  poor  people.  A  want  begets  an 
industry,  the  industry  a  business,  the  business  a 
profit,  the  profit  a  prosperity,  and  the  prosperity 
useful  ideas.  These  different  workmen  wanted  bread 
already  baked;  we  had  a  baker.  But  buckwheat 
could  no  longer  be  the  nourishment  of  this  popu- 
lation drawn  from  its  degrading  inertia  and  become 
essentially  active;  I  had  found  them  eating  black 
grain;  1  desired  to  have  them  change  at  first  to  a 
regimen  of  rye  or  of  a  mixture  of  wheat  and  rye, 
then  to  see  one  day  in  the  hands  of  the  poorest  a 
piece  of  white  bread.     For  my  part,  the  intellectual 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  59 

progress  was  closely  connected  with  the  sanitary 
progress.  A  butcher  in  a  district  proclaims  as  much 
of  intelligence  as  of  riches.  Who  works,  eats,  and 
who  eats,  thinks.  Foreseeing  the  day  when  the 
production  of  wheat  would  be  necessary,  I  had  care- 
fully examined  the  character  of  the  soil;  I  was  con- 
fident of  being  able  to  endow  the  town  with  a  great 
agricultural  prosperity,  and  of  doubling  its  population 
as  soon  as  it  should  be  fully  engaged  in  work. 
The  moment  had  arrived.  Monsieur  Gravier,  of 
Grenoble,  was  the  owner  of  certain  lands  in  the 
commune  from  which  he  drew  no  revenue,  but 
which  could  be  converted  into  grain-fields.  He  is, 
as  you  know,  chief  of  division  at  the  prefecture. 
As  much  through  attachment  to  his  district  as  van- 
quished by  my  importunities,  he  had  already  lent 
himself  with  great  good  nature  to  my  requirements; 
I  succeeded  in  making  him  comprehend  that  he  had, 
unknown  to  himself,  worked  for  his  own  interests. 

"After  several  days  spent  in  solicitation,  in  con- 
'ferences,  in  measures  debated;  after  having  pledged 
my  fortune  to  guarantee  him  against  the  risks  of 
an  enterprise  concerning  which  his  wife,  a  narrow 
woman,  endeavored  to  excite  his  fears,  he  consented 
to  lay  out  here  four  farms  of  a  hundred  arpents 
each,  and  promised  to  advance  the  sums  necessary 
for  the  clearing  of  the  ground,  the  purchase  of  seed, 
the  instruments  of  husbandry,  the  cattle,  and  the 
opening  of  the  necessary  farm  roads.  On  my  side, 
I  constructed  two  farms,  as  much  to  bring  under  cul- 
tivation my  idle  and  unproductive  land  as  to  teach 


60  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

by  example  the  useful  methods  of  modern  agricul- 
ture. In  six  weeks  the  town  was  increased  by 
three  hundred  inhabitants.  Six  farms  which  would 
necessarily  require  several  households,  enormous 
clearings  to  be  undertaken,  the  tilling  to  be  done 
all  called  for  workmen.  The  wheelwrights,  the 
terrace-makers,  the  journeymen,  the  laborers,  flowed 
in.  The  road  to  Grenoble  was  covered  with  carts 
going  and  coming.  There  was  a  general  movement 
throughout  the  country.  The  circulation  of  money 
aroused  in  everybody  the  desire  of  gain,  the  apathy 
had  ceased,  the  town  had  awakened.  I  will  finish 
in  two  words  the  history  of  Monsieur  Gravier,  one 
of  the  benefactors  of  this  canton. 

"Notwithstanding  the  mistrust  natural  enough  in 
a  provincial  citizen,  in  a  man  of  bureaus,  he,  on  the 
faith  of  my  promises,  advanced  more  than  forty 
thousand  francs,  without  knowing  whether  he  would 
regain  them.  Each  of  his  farms  is  to-day  leased  for 
a  thousand  francs;  his  farmers  have  so  well  managed 
their  affairs  that  each  one  of  them  possesses  at  least 
a  hundred  arpents  of  land,  three  hundred  sheep, 
twenty  cows,  ten  oxen,  five  horses,  and  employs 
more  than  twenty  persons.  To  resume.  In  the 
course  of  the  fourth  year,  our  farms  were  completed. 
We  had  a  grain  harvest  that  seemed  miraculous  to 
the  country  people,  abundant  as  it  was  naturally  on 
a  virgin  soil.  I  often  trembled  for  my  work  during 
that  fourth  year!  The  rain  or  a  drought  might  ruin 
my  work  by  impairing  the  confidence  which  I  had 
already  inspired.     The  culture  of  wheat  necessitated 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  6l 

the  mill  which  you  have  seen,  and  whjch  brings  me 
in  about  five  hundred  francs  a  yearv^''Thus  the  peas- 
ants say,  in  their  language,  tha^t  /  have  Ittck,  and  be- 
lieve in  me  as  in  their  relics.  These-new  construc- 
tions, the  farms,  the  mill,  the  plantations,  the  roads, 
have  given  work  to  all  the  men  with  trades  that  I 
have  brought  here.  Although  our  buildings  fully  rep- 
resent the  sixty  thousand  francs  which  we  have  in- 
vested in  the  country,  this  money  has  been  amply 
returned  to  us  by  the  revenues  created  by  the  con- 
sumers. 

'  *  My  efforts  do  not  cease  to  animate  this  budding  in- 
dustry. By  my  advice,  a  nursery-gardener  came  to 
establish  himself  in  the  town,  where  I  preached  to  the 
poorest  the  advisability  of  cultivating  fruit-trees  in 
order  to  be  able  one  day  to  acquire  at  Grenoble 
the  monopoly  of  the  sale  of  fruits.  '  You  carry 
cheese  there,'  I  said  to  them;  'why  not  carry  there 
chickens,  eggs,  vegetables,  game,  hay,  straw,  etc.."*' 
Each  one  of  my  counsels  was  the  source  of  a  fortune, — 
it  was  for  whoever  would  follow  it.  There  was 
formed,  consequently,  a  multitude  of  little  establish- 
ments, the  progress  of  which,  slow  at  first,  became 
from  day  to  day  more  rapid.  Every  Monday  there  now 
depart  from  the  town  for  Grenoble  more  than  sixty 
carts  laden  with  our  divers  products,  and  there  is 
more  buckwheat  gathered  to  feed  the  chickens  than 
there  was  formerly  sown  to  feed  the  men.  The 
lumber  trade,  now  become  too  considerable,  is  subdi- 
vided. Since  the  fourth  year  of  our  industrial  era,  we 
have  had  sellers  of  firewood,  of  squared  lumber,  of 


62  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

planks,  of  bark,  and  charcoal-makers.  Finally,  there 
have  been  established  four  new  saw-mills  for  planks 
and  beams. 

"The  ex-mayor,  in  acquiring  some  commercial 
ideas,  began  to  feel  the  need  of  learning  to  read  and 
to  write.  He  has  compared  the  price  of  wood  in 
different  localities;  he  has  found  such  variations,  with 
the  advantage  in  favor  of  his  own  business,  that  he 
has  procured  new  customers  in  various  places,  and 
he  supplies  to-day  the  third  of  the  department.  Our 
means  of  transportation  have  increased  so  rapidly  that 
we  keep  three  wheelwrights  and  two  harness-makers 
busy,  and  each  of  them  has  not  less  than  three 
assistants.  Finally,  we  consume  so  much  iron  that 
an  edge-tool  maker  has  moved  into  the  town,  and  has 
done  very  well  here.  The  desire  of  gain  develops 
an  ambition  which  from  that  period  has  given  my 
manufacturers  and  workpeople  an  impulse  which  has 
spread  from  the  town  to  the  canton  and  from  the 
canton  to  the  department,  with  the  effect  of  increas- 
ing their  profits  by  increasing  their  sales.  I  have 
had  only  to  say  one  word  to  indicate  to  them  new 
openings;  their  good  sense  did  the  rest.  Four  years 
sufficed  to  change  the  face  of  this  town.  When  I 
first  passed  through  here,  I  did  not  hear  a  sound  in 
the  streets;  but,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  year, 
everything  here  was  living  and  animated.  The  joy- 
ful chants,  the  noise  of  the  workshops,  and  the  dull 
or  sharp  sound  of  the  tools  resounded  agreeably  in 
my  ears.  I  saw  an  active  population  coming  and 
going,   gathered    together   in   a  new  town,   clean, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  63 

healthful,  well  planted  with  trees.  Each  inhabitant 
had  the  consciousness  of  his  own  well-being,  and  all 
the  countenances  expressed  the  contentment  given 
by  a  life  usefully  occupied. 

"  These  five  years  form  in  my  eyes  the  first  age 
of  the  prosperous  life  of  our  town,"  resumed  the 
doctor,  after  a  pause.  "  During  this  time  I  had 
cleared  away  everything,  sown  everything  in  germ 
in  the  heads  and  in  the  soil.  The  progressive  move- 
ment of  the  population  and  of  the  industries  could 
no  longer  be  arrested.  A  second  age  was  preparing. 
Presently,  this  little  world  began  to  desire  to  be  bet- 
ter dressed.  There  came  to  us  a  haberdasher,  and 
with  him  the  shoemaker,  the  tailor,  and  the  hat- 
maker.  This  beginning  of  luxury  secured  for  us  a 
butcher  and  a  grocer;  then  a  midwife,  who  became 
very  necessary  to  me.  I  lost  considerable  time  in 
attending  to  childbirths.  The  clearings  gave  excel- 
lent harvests.  Then  the  superior  quality  of  our 
agricultural  products  was  maintained  by  the  fertil- 
izers and  the  manure  obtained  by  the  increase  in  the 
population.  My  enterprise  could  then  develop  itself 
fully. 

"After  having  made  the  houses  healthful  and  gradu- 
ally brought  the  inhabitants  to  nourish  themselves 
better,  to  clothe  themselves  better,  I  desired  that  the 
animals  should  benefit  by  this  commencement  of 
civilization.  Upon  the  care  given  to  cattle  depends 
the  beauty  of  the  races  and  the  individuals,  conse- 
quently that  of  the  products, — I  therefore  preached  the 
cleaning  and  making  wholesome  of  the  stables.    By 


64  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

a  comparison  of  the  profit  returned  by  an  animal  well 
lodged,  well  cared  for,  with  the  meagre  return  from 
a  neglected  beast,  I  brought  about  insensibly  a  change 
in  the  management  of  the  cattle  of  the  commune, — 
not  one  animal  suffered.  The  cows  and  the  oxen 
were  cared  for  as  they  are  in  Switzerland  and  in  Au- 
vergne.  The  sheepfolds,  the  stables,  the  cow- 
houses, the  dairies,  the  barns,  were  rebuilt  on  the 
models  of  my  constructions  and  of  those  of  Monsieur 
Gravier,  which  are  large  and  well-aired,  and  conse- 
quently salubrious.  Our  farmers  were  my  apostles: 
they  promptly  converted  the  incredulous  by  demon- 
strating to  them  the  soundness  of  my  precepts  by 
the  prompt  results.  As  to  those  who  were  in  want 
of  money,  I  lent  it  to  them,  favoring  especially  the 
industrious  poor;  they  served  as  examples.  Follow- 
ing my  advice,  the  defective  animals,  those  that  were 
sickly  or  mediocre  in  quality,  were  sold  and  replaced 
by  fine  specimens. 

"  Thus  it  came  about  that  our  products,  within 
a  given  time,  became  known  in  the  markets  as 
superior  to  those  of  the  other  communes.  We 
had  magnificent  flocks,  and  consequently  excellent 
leather.  This  progress  was  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance. For  this  reason.  Nothing  is  fruitless  in  rural 
economy.  Formerly  our  bark  sold  at  a  very  low 
price,  and  our  leather  had  no  great  value;  but,  our 
bark  and  our  leather  once  bettered,  the  river  per- 
mitted us  to  construct  tanneries,  tanners  came  to 
us,  and  the  industry  rapidly  increased.  Good  wine, 
formerly  unknown   in   the  town,  where   only  the 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  65 

thinnest  vintage  was  drunk,  became  naturally  a 
necessity;  cabarets  were  established.  Then  the 
oldest  of  the  cabarets  was  enlarged,  was  trans- 
formed, into  an  inn,  and  furnished  mules  to  the 
travellers  who  began  to  use  our  road  to  go  to  the 
Grande-Chartreuse.  For  the  last  two  years  we 
have  had  a  commercial  movement  sufficient  to  sus- 
tain two  innkeepers. 

"At  the  beginning  of  the  second  era  of  our  pros- 
perity, the  justice  of  the  peace  died.  Very  fortu- 
nately for  us,  his  successor  was  a  former  notary 
of  Grenoble  ruined  by  an  unfortunate  speculation, 
but  who  had  enough  property  remaining  to  make 
him  rich  in  the  village.  Monsieur  Gravier  was  able 
to  induce  him  to  come  here;  he  has  built  a  hand- 
some house,  he  has  seconded  my  efforts  by  joining 
to  them  his  own;  he  has  laid  out  a  farm  and  cleared 
off  the  brushwood,  and  to-day  he  possesses  three 
chalets  in  the  mountain.  His  family  is  numerous. 
He  has  dismissed  the  former  clerk  and  the  former 
sheriff  and  replaced  them  by  men  much  more 
capable  and,  above  all,  more  industrious  than  their 
predecessors.  These  two  new  households  have 
created  a  potato  distillery  and  an  establishment 
for  washing  wool,  very  useful  industries,  which  the 
heads  of  the  two  families  conduct  without  inter- 
ference with  their  official  duties.  After  having 
established  a  revenue  for  the  commune,  I  em- 
ployed it  in  building  a  town-house,  in  which  I 
established  a  free  school,  and  lodging-rooms  for  a 
primary  instructor.  I  selected  to  fill  this  important 
5 


66  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

position  a  poor  priest  who  had  taken  the  oath  to 
the  constitutional  authorities,  rejected  by  the  whole 
department,  and  who  found  among  us  an  asylum 
for  his  old  days.  The  schoolmistress  is  a  worthy 
woman,  financially  ruined,  who  did  not  know  where 
to  lay  her  head,  and  for  whom  we  have  arranged 
a  little  competence;  she  has  founded  a  boarding- 
school  for  girls  to  which  the  rich  farmers  of  the 
environs  are  beginning  to  send  their  daughters. 

"  Monsieur,  if  I  have  had  the  right  to  relate  to 
you  up  to  this  point  the  history  of  this  little  corner 
of  the  earth  in  my  own  name,  there  comes  a  time 
when  Monsieur  Janvier,  the  new  cure,  a  true 
Fenelon  reduced  to  the  proportions  of  a  cure,  has 
counted  for  one-half  in  this  work  of  regeneration: 
he  has  known  how  to  give  to  the  manners  and 
customs  of  the  town  a  gentle  and  fraternal  feeling 
which  seems  to  make  one  family  of  the  entire  popu- 
lation. Monsieur  Dufau,  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
although  he  came  later,  merits  equally  the  gratitude 
of  the  inhabitants.  To  sum  up  to  you  our  situation 
by  figures  more  significant  than  my  statements,  the 
commune  possesses  to-day  two  hundred  arpents  of 
woodland  and  a  hundred  and  sixty  arpents  of  pas- 
turage. Without  recourse  to  increased  taxation,  it 
pays  an  additional  sum  of  a  hundred  ecus  to  the 
cure,  two  hundred  francs  to  the  garde  champgtre,  as 
much  to  the  schoolmaster  and  to  the  schoolmistress; 
it  has  five  hundred  francs  for  its  roads,  as  much  for 
the  repairs  of  the  town-house,  the  parsonage,  the 
church,  and  for  some   other  expenses.      In  fifteen 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  67 

years  from  now,  it  will  possess  a  hundred  thousand 
francs'  worth  of  standing  timber,  and  will  be  able 
to  meet  all  its  expenses  without  costing  the  inhabit- 
ants a  denier;  it  will  certainly  be  one  of  the  richest 
communes  in  France.  But,  monsieur,  I  am  perhaps 
wearying  you?"  said  Benassis  to  Genestas,  seeing 
his  auditor  in  so  thoughtful  an  attitude  that  it  might 
well  be  taken  for  that  of  an  inattentive  man. 

"  Oh!  no,"  replied  the  commandant. 

"  Monsieur,"  resumed  the  doctor,  "the  trade,  the 
industry,  the  agriculture,  and  our  consumption  were 
only  local.  Our  prosperity  was  arrested  at  a  cer- 
tain point.  I  therefore  requested  a  post-office,  retail 
stores  to  sell  tobacco,  powder,  and  cards;  I  even 
induced  the  collector  of  taxes,  by  the  inducements  of 
the  locality  and  of  our  new  society,  to  leave  the 
commune  in  which,  up  to  this  time,  he  had  preferred 
to  live  rather  than  in  the  chief  place  of  the  canton; 
I  contrived  to  call  in,  in  time  and  place  when  needed, 
each  production  of  which  1  had  made  the  need  felt; 
I  brought  in  households  and  industrious  people,  I 
communicated  to  all  of  them  the  sense  of  proprietor- 
ship,— ^thus,  in  proportion  as  they  acquired  money 
the  lands  were  cleared;  the  small  plots  of  ground, 
the  small  proprietors,  spread  over  the  mountain,  and 
gradually  brought  it  under  cultivation.  The  unfor- 
tunate poor  whom  I  had  found  here  carrying  on  foot 
a  few  cheeses  to  Grenoble,  now  went  there  comfort- 
ably in  carts,  taking  fruit,  eggs,  chickens,  and  tur- 
keys. Everything  had  insensibly  enlarged.  The 
worst  endowed  was  he  who  had  only  his  garden,  his 


68  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

vegetables,  his  fruits,  his  early  garden-truck,  to  cul- 
tivate. 

"  Finally, — a  sign  of  prosperity, — no  one  any  longer 
baked  his  own  bread,  so  as  not  to  lose  any  time,  and 
the  children  watched  the  flocks.  But,  monsieur,  it 
was  necessary  to  maintain  this  industrial  centre  by 
ceaselessly  throwing  into  it  new  supplies.  The 
town  had  not  yet  a  growing  industry  that  could 
support  this  commercial  production  and  necessitate 
large  transactions,  an  exchange,  a  market.  It  is 
not  sufificient  for  a  country  to  lose  nothing  on  the 
amount  of  money  which  it  owns  and  which  forms 
its  capital;  you  will  not  augment  its  prosperity  by  con- 
triving, with  greater  or  less  skill,  to  make  this  sum 
circulate,  by  the  action  of  production  and  consump- 
tion, through  the  greatest  possible  number  of  hands. 
That  is  not  the  problem.  When  a  country  is  in  full 
production,  and  when  its  productions  balance  its  con- 
sumption, it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  create  new 
fortunes  and  to  increase  the  public  wealth,  to  estab- 
lish exchanges  with  abroad  which  will  constantly 
bring  new  assets  into  its  commercial  balance.  It  is 
this  idea  which  has  constantly  determined  the  States 
without  territorial  base,  like  Tyre,  Carthage,  Venice, 
Holland,  and  England,  to  take  possession  of  the 
commerce  of  transportation.  I  sought  for  our  little 
sphere  an  analogous  idea,  in  order  to  create  in  it  a 
third  commercial  epoch.  Our  prosperity,  scarcely 
visible  to  the  eyes  of  a  traveller,  for  our  chief  town 
of  the  canton  resembles  all  the  others,  was  sur- 
prising for  me  alone.     The  inhabitants,  insensibly 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  69 

brought  together,  have  not  been  able  to  judge  of  the 
whole  while  participating  in  the  movement. 

**  At  the  expiration  of  seven  years  I  encountered 
two  strangers,  the  true  benefactors  of  this  town, 
which  they  will  perhaps  metamorphose  into  a  city. 
One  of  them  is  a  Tyrolese,  of  an  incredible  skill, 
who  makes  shoes  for  the  country  people,  boots  for 
the  fashionables  of  Grenoble,  as  no  Parisian  work- 
man can  manufacture  them.  A  poor  itinerant  musi- 
cian, one  of  those  industrious  Germans  who  make 
both  the  work  and  the  tool,  the  music  and  the 
instrument,  he  halted  in  the  town  on  his  way  from 
Italy,  which  he  had  traversed  singing  and  working. 
He  asked  if  someone  did  not  need  some  shoes;  he 
was  sent  to  me;  I  ordered  of  him  two  pairs  of  boots 
of  which  he  made  the  lasts.  Surprised  at  this 
stranger's  skill,  I  questioned  him;  Hound  him  exact 
in  his  replies;  his  manner,  his  face,  all  confirmed  me 
in  the  good  opinion  I  had  formed  of  him;  I  proposed 
to  him  to  settle  in  the  town,  promising  to  aid  his 
business  by  all  the  means  in  my  power,  and  I  placed 
at  his  disposition  a  sufficiently  large  sum  of  money. 
He  accepted.  I  had  certain  ideas.  Our  leather, 
having  become  much  superior  in  quality,  could  be  in 
course  of  time  consumed  by  ourselves  in  the  fabri- 
cation of  boots  and  shoes  at  moderate  prices.  I  was 
about  to  begin  again  on  a  larger  scale  the  business 
of  the  osiers. 

"  Chance  had  offered  me  a  man  eminently  skilful 
and  industrious  whom  I  should  enlist  in  order  to  give 
to  the  town  a  productive  and  stable  business.     The 


•JO  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

consumption  of  the  shoemaker's  wares  is  one  that 
never  stops,  it  is  a  manufacture  in  which  the  least 
advantage  is  promptly  appreciated  by  the  consumer. 
I  had  the  good  fortune  not  to  be  deceived,  monsieur. 
To-day  we  have  five  tanneries;  they  consume  all 
the  leather  of  the  department,  they  send  for  more 
as  far  as  Provence,  and  each  one  possesses  its 
bark-mill.  Well,  monsieur,  these  tanneries  do  not 
suffice  to  furnish  the  Tyrolese  with  all  the  leather  he 
needs:  he  employs  no  less  than  forty  workmen! — 
The  other  man,  whose  story  is  no  less  curious,  but 
which  perhaps  would  be  wearisome  for  you  to  hear, 
is  a  simple  peasant  who  has  found  a  method  of 
making  cheaper  than  anywhere  else  the  broad- 
brimmed  hats  worn  in  the  country;  he  exports  them 
into  all  the  neighboring  departments,  even  to  Swit- 
zerland and  Savoy. 

"  These  two  industries,  never-ceasing  sources  of 
prosperity,  if  the  canton  can  maintain  the  quality  of 
the  products  and  their  low  price,  suggested  to  me 
the  idea  of  founding  here  three  annual  fairs;  the 
prefect,  astonished  at  the  industrial  progress  of  this 
canton,  seconded  me  in  obtaining  the  royal  ordi- 
nance which  instituted  them.  Last  year  one  of  these 
fairs  took  place;  they  are  already  known  in  Savoy 
as  the  fair  of  shoes  and  hats.  On  learning  of  these 
changes,  the  head  clerk  of  a  notary  of  Grenoble,  a 
young  man,  poor,  but  well-educated,  a  great  worker, 
and  to  whom  Mademoiselle  Gravier  is  betrothed, 
went  to  Paris  to  solicit  the  establishment  of  a  no- 
tary's office;  his  request  was  granted.      His  post 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  7 1 

cost  him  nothing;  he  has  been  able  to  build  for  him- 
self a  house  opposite  that  of  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
on  the  principal  square  of  the  new  town.  We  have 
now  a  weekly  market  at  which  there  are  very  con- 
siderable transactions  in  cattle  and  grain. 

"  Next  year  there  will  doubtless  come  to  us  an 
apothecary,  then  a  clockmaker,  a  furniture-dealer, 
and  a  bookstore,  in  short,  the  superfluities  necessary 
to  life.  Perhaps  we  shall  end  by  taking  on  the  style 
of  a  little  city  and  by  having  bourgeois  houses.  The 
general  instruction  has  made  such  progress  that  I  did 
not  encounter  in  the  municipal  council  the  slightest 
opposition  when  I  proposed  to  repair,  to  decorate  the 
church,  to  build  a  parsonage,  to  lay  out  a  fine  site 
for  the  fair,  to  plant  trees  on  it,  and  to  survey  for 
streets  to  be  opened  later,  dry,  well-lighted,  and  well- 
planned.  This  is  how,  monsieur,  we  have  attained  to 
nineteen  hundred  hearths  instead  of  a  hundred  and 
thirty-seven,  three  thousand  horned  cattle  instead  of 
eight  hundred,  and,  instead  of  seven  hundred  souls, 
two  thousand  persons  in  the  town,  three  thousand 
counting  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley.  There  are 
in  the  commune  twelve  rich  houses,  a  hundred  fami- 
lies in  easy  circumstances,  two  hundred  which  are 
prosperous.  The  rest  all  work.  Everybody  can 
read  and  write.  Finally,  we  have  seventeen  sub- 
scribers to  different  journals.  You  will  still  meet 
with  enough  unfortunates  in  our  canton.  I  certainly 
see  only  too  many  of  them;  but  no  one  has  to  beg; 
there  is  work  for  all.  I  now  tire  two  horses  a  day 
in  riding  to  minister  to  the  sick;  I  can  travel  without 


72  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

danger  within  a  radius  of  five  leagues,  and  whoever 
would  fire  at  me  now  would  not  be  left  alive  ten  min- 
utes. The  tacit  affection  of  the  inhabitants  is  all 
that  I  have  personally  gained  by  these  changes,  in 
addition  to  the  pleasure  of  hearing  said  to  me  by 
everybody,  with  a  joyous  air,  as  I  pass  by:  *  Good- 
day,  Monsieur  Benassis!'  You  will  readily  compre- 
hend that  the  fortune  gained  involuntarily  by  my 
model  farms  is,  in  my  hands,  a  means  and  not  a  re- 
sult." 

"  If  everyone  imitated  your  example  everywhere, 
monsieur,  France  would  be,  indeed,  great,  and  could 
defy  all  Europe!"  exclaimed  Genestas,  in  a  transport. 

"  But  I  have  kept  you  here  a  half-hour,"  said  Be- 
nassis; "  it  is  almost  dark;  let  us  go  to  dinner." 

From  the  side  of  the  garden  the  doctor's  house  pre- 
sents afagade  with  five  windows  on  each  story.  It  con- 
sists of  a  ground-floor  surmounted  by  a  first  story,  and 
covered  with  a  tile  roof  pierced  by  projecting  dormer 
windows.  The  shutters,  painted  in  green,  assert 
themselves  on  the  grayish  tone  of  the  wall,  on  which 
for  ornament  a  vine  grows  between  the  two  stories, 
from  one  end  to  the  other,  in  the  form  of  a  frieze. 
At  the  bottom,  along  the  wall,  some  Bengal  roses 
grow  sadly,  half  drowned  by  the  rain-water  from  the 
roof,  which  has  no  gutters.  On  entering  by  the 
large  landing-place  which  forms  the  antechamber, 
there  is  found  at  the  right  a  salon  with  four  windows, 
opening  some  of  them  on  the  court,  the  others  on  the 
garden.  This  salon,  doubtless  the  object  of  many 
economies  and  many  hopes  on  the  part  of  the  poor 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  73 

deceased  proprietor,  is  floored  with  planks,  wains- 
coted in  the  lower  part  of  the  walls  and  furnished 
with  tapestries  of  the  century  before  the  last.  The 
large  and  wide  easy-chairs  covered  with  flowered 
lampas,  the  antique  gilded  branched  candlesticks 
which  ornament  the  chimney-piece,  and  the  curtains 
with  heavy  tassels,  announced  the  opulence  of  the 
late  cure.  Benassis  had  completed  this  furnishing, 
which  did  not  want  for  character,  by  two  consoles  of 
wood  with  sculptured  garlands,  placed  opposite  each 
other  in  the  space  between  the  windows,  and  by  a 
timepiece  in  tortoise-shell  incrusted  with  brass  which 
decorated  the  chimney.  The  doctor  rarely  inhabited 
this  room,  which  exhaled  the  damp  odor  of  apartments 
which  are  always  closed.  There  was  in  it  still  the 
smell  of  the  defunct  cure,  the  peculiar  scent  of  his 
tobacco  even  seemed  to  issue  from  the  corner  of  the 
chimney  in  which  he  habitually  sat.  The  two  large 
armchairs  were  placed  symmetrically  on  each  side  of 
the  hearth,  in  which  there  had  been  no  fire  since 
Monsieur  Gravier's  visit,  but  in  which  were  now 
burning  the  clear  flames  of  pine  wood. 

"It  is  still  cold  in  the  evening,"  said  Benassis, 
"the  fire  is  very  agreeable." 

Genestas,  become  thoughtful,  was  beginning  to 
understand  the  indifference  of  the  doctor  to  the 
ordinary  things  of  life. 

"Monsieur,"  he  said  to  him,  "you  have,  indeed, 
the  spirit  of  a  good  citizen,  and  I  am  surprised  that, 
after  having  accomplished  so  many  things,  you  have 
not  attempted  to  enlighten  the  government." 


74  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

Benassis  commenced  to  laugh,  but  softly  and  with 
a  melancholy  air. 

"Write  some  memorial  upon  the  methods  of  civil- 
izing France,  is  not  that  it?  Monsieur  Gravier  said 
that  to  me,  before  you.  Alas!  a  government  is  not 
to  be  enlightened,  and,  of  all  governments,  that  the 
least  susceptible  of  being  enlightened  is  that  one 
which  believes  that  it  diffuses  illumination.  Doubt- 
less, that  which  we  have  done  for  this  canton  all 
mayors  should  do  for  theirs,  the  municipal  magistrate 
for  his  city,  the  sub-prefect  for  the  arrondissement, 
the  prefect  for  the  department,  the  minister  for 
France,  each  one  in  the  sphere  of  interest  in  which 
he  acts.  Where  I  have  succeeded  in  constructing  a 
road  of  two  leagues,  one  would  complete  a  highway, 
another  a  canal;  where  I  have  encouraged  the  manu- 
facture of  peasants'  hats,  the  minister  would  relieve 
France  of  the  industrial  yoke  of  the  foreigner  by  en- 
couraging some  manufacture  of  clocks,  by  aiding  in 
the  perfecting  of  our  iron,  our  steel,  our  files,  or  our 
crucibles,  in  cultivating  silk-worms,  or  plants  for  dyes. 
In  the  matter  of  commerce,  encouragement  does  not 
signify  protection.  The  enlightened  policy  of  a 
country  should  tend  to  enfranchise  it  from  all  tribute 
to  foreign  nations,  but  without  the  mortifying  assist- 
ance of  customs  and  prohibitory  duties.  Industry 
can  only  be  saved  by  itself,  competition  is  its  life. 
Protected,  it  is  lulled  to  sleep;  it  perishes  by  mo- 
nopoly, as  under  the  tariff.  The  nation  that  renders 
all  others  its  tributaries  will  be  that  one  which  will 
proclaim  commercial  liberty;  it  will  be  conscious  of 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  75 

its  own  power  to  maintain  its  manufactured  products 
at  a  lower  price  than  that  of  its  competitors. 

"France  can  attain  this  end  much  better  than 
England,  for  she  alone  possesses  a  territory  suffi- 
ciently extended  to  maintain  the  agricultural  produc- 
tions at  prices  which  will  make  possible  the  lowering 
of  the  wages  of  industry, — to  this  should  be  directed 
the  aim  of  the  administration  in  France,  for  this  is 
the  whole  modern  question.  My  dear  monsieur,  this 
study  has  not  been  the  aim  of  my  life;  the  task 
which  I  have  tardily  taken  up  is  an  accidental  one. 
Then,  these  things  are  too  simple  for  anyone  to 
constitute  a  science  of  them;  they  have  nothing 
brilliant  or  theoretical  about  them,  they  have  the 
misfortune  to  be  merely  useful.  In  short,  labor 
cannot  be  hurried. 

"  In  order  to  obtain  success  in  this,  it  is  necessary 
to  find  in  yourself  every  morning  the  same  allowance 
of  courage,  the  rarest  and,  apparently,  the  easiest 
courage, — ^that  of  the  professor  repeating  ceaselessly 
the   same  things,   a  courage  that  is   but    slightly 
recompensed.     If  we   salute  respectfully  the  man 
who,  like  yourself,  has  shed  his  blood  on  the  field  of 
battle,  we  deride  him  who  has  consumed  slowly  the 
fire   of  his   life    in    repeating  the   same  things  to 
children  of  the  same  age.     Good  done  in  an  obscureO 
manner  tempts  no  one.     We  are  essentially  lacking    S 
in  the  civic  virtue  with  which  the  great  men   of    j 
antiquity  rendered  service  to  the  country,  by  placing    \ 
themselves  in  the  last  rank  when  they  were  not  com-     \ 
manding.     The  malady  of  our  times  is  superiority.     ( 


76  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

There  are  more  saints  than  niches.  For  this  rea- 
son. With  the  monarchy,  we  lost  honor;  with 
the  reHgion  of  our  fathers,  Christian  virtue;  with 
our  fruitless  essays  at  government,  patriotism.  In- 
stead of  animating  the  masses,  these  principles  no 
longer  exist  but  partially,  for  ideas  never  perish. 

"At  present,  to  prop  up  society,  we  have  no  other 
support  than. egotism.  Individuals  believe  only  in 
themselves.  The  future,  it  is  man  in  human  society; 
we  see  nothing  beyond.  The  great  man  who  will 
save  us  from  the  shipwreck  toward  which  we  are 
hastening  will  doubtless  avail  himself  of  the  spirit  of 
individualism  to  remake  the  nation;  but,  while  wait- 
ing for  this  regeneration,  we  are  still  in  the  age  of 
materia^  and  positive  interests.  This  last  phrase  is 
that  which  appIFes  1:6  an  the  world.  We  are  all 
reckoned,  not  according  to  our  value,  but  according 
to  what  we  weigh.  If  he  is  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  the 
man  of  energy  is  scarcely  noticed.  This  sentiment 
has  passed  into  the  government.  The  minister 
sends  a  pitiful  medal  to  the  sailor  who  has  saved,  at 
the  peril  of  his  life,  a  dozen  men;  he  gives  the  cross 
of  honor  to  the  deputy  who  sells  him  his  vote.  Woe 
to  the  country  thus  constituted!  Nations,  like  indi- 
viduals, owe  their  energy  only  to  great  sentiments. 
The  sentiments  of  a  people  are  its  beliefs.  Instead 
of  having  beliefs,  we  have  interests.  If  each  one 
believes  only  in  himself  and  has  faith  only  in  himself, 
how  can  you  expect  to  find  much  civil  courage, 
when  the  essential  condition  of  this  virtue  consists 
in  self-renunciation.?      Civil   courage   and    military 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  "J-J 

courage  spring  from  the  same  principle.  You  are 
called  upon  to  give  your  life  at  once,  ours  goes  from 
us  drop  by  drop.  On  each  side  are  the  same 
combats  under  other  forms.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  be 
a  worthy  man  to  civilize  the  most  humble  corner  of 
the  earth;  it  is  necessary,  in  addition,  to  be  well 
informed;  moreover,  education,  probity,  patriotism, 
are  nothing  without  the  firm  will  which  enables  a 
man  to  detach  himself  from  all  personal  interests  in 
order  to  devote  himself  to  a  social  idea. 

"  Certainly,  France  counts  more  than  one  well- 
informed  man,  more  than  one  patriot  to  each 
commune;  but  I  am  certain  that  there  does  not  exist 
in  each  canton  a  man  who,  to  these  precious  qual- 
ities, joins  the  continuous  determination,  the  perti- 
nacity of  the  blacksmith  hammering  his  iron.  The 
man  who  destroys  and  the  man  who  constructs  are 
two  phenomena  of  will, — one  prepares,  the  other 
completes  the  work;  the  first  appears  like  the  genius 
of  evil,  and  the  second  seems  to  be  the  genius  of 
good;  one  has  glory,  and  the  other,  forgetful ness. 
Evil  possesses  a  clamorous  voice  which  awakens  the 
commonplace  souls  and  fills  them  with  admiration, 
whilst  the  good  is  long  silent.  Human  self-love 
promptly  selected  the  most  brilliant  role.  A  great 
work  of  peace,  accomplished  without  considerations 
for  self,  will  never,  then,  be  anything  but  accidental 
until  education  has  changed  the  social  customs  in 
France.  When  these  customs  shall  be  changed, 
when  we  shall  all  be  great  citizens,  shall  we  not 
become,  notwithstanding  the  comforts  of  a  trivial 


78  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

life,  the  most  wearisome  people,  the  most  wearied, 
the  least  artistic,  the  most  unhappy,  that  there  is  on 
the  earth  ?  These  great  questions  are  not  for  me  to 
decide:  I  am  not  the  head  of  the  government. 

"  Apart  from  these  considerations,  there  are  still 
other  difficulties  which  oppose  the  adoption  of  fixed 
principles  by  the  administration.  In  questions  of 
civilization,  monsieur,  nothing  is,  absolute.  Ideas 
which  are  appropriate  to  one  country  are  fatal  in  an- 
other, and  it  is  with  intelligences  as  it  is  with  soils. 
If  we  have  so  many  bad  administrators,  it  is  because 
government,  like  taste,  proceeds  originally  from  a 
very  elevated  and  very  pure  sentiment.  In  this, 
genius  comes  from  a  tendency  of  the  soul,  and  not 
from  a  science.  No  one  can  appreciate  either  the 
acts  or  the  ideas  of  an  administrator,  his  true  judges 
are  far  from  him,  the  results  more  distant  still. 
Everyone  can  thus,  without  danger,  proclaim  him- 
self an  administrator.  In  France,  the  species  of 
seduction  which  the  intelligence  exercises  over  us 
inspires  in  us  a  great  esteem  for  the  men  with  ideas; 
but  ideas  are  but  of  small  importance  where  only  a 
will  is  required.  In  short,  administration  does  not 
consist  in  imposing  on  the  masses  ideas  or  methods 
more  or  less  just,  but  in  imparting  to  the  good  or  bad 
ideas  of  these  masses  a  useful  direction  which  will 
bring  them  into  accord  with  the  general  welfare.  If 
the  prejudices  and  the  fixed  habits  of  a  country  lead 
to  an  evil  termination,  the  inhabitants  will  them- 
selves abandon  their  errors.  Does  not  every  error 
in  rural  economy,  political  or  domestic,  entail  losses 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  79 

which  self-interest  will  in  the  end  rectify?  Here, 
very  fortunately,  I  found  a  blank  page.  In  accord- 
ance with  my  advice,  the  land  here  is  well  culti- 
vated; but  there  was  no  system  in  agriculture, 
and  the  soil  was  good, — it  was  therefore  easy  for 
me  to  introduce  the  cultivation  of  land  in  five  suc- 
cessive rotations  of  crops,  artificial  meadows,  and 
potatoes.  My  agricultural  system  offended  no  preju- 
dice. There  was  as  yet  no  use  of  bad  coulters,  as 
in  certain  parts  of  France,  and  the  hoe  sufficed  for 
the  little  cultivation  that  was  done.  The  wheel- 
wright was  interested  in  praising  my  wheel-ploughs 
to  benefit  his  trade;  I  had  in  him  a  cordial  ally. 
But  here,  as  elsewhere,  I  have  always  endeav- 
ored .to  make  the  interests  of  one  converge  to- 
ward those  of  others.  Then  1  proceeded  from  the 
productions  which  directly  interested  these  poor 
people  to  those  which  augmented  their  welfare.  I 
brought  nothing  in  from  outside,  I  only  aided  those 
exportations  which  should  enrich  them,  and  the 
benefits  of  which  are  directly  comprehended.  These 
people  were  my  disciples  by  their  works  and  without 
knowing  it. 

"Another  consideration !  We  are  here  only  five 
leagues  from  Grenoble,  and  there  are  always  to  be 
found  near  a  great  city  many  outlets  for  productions. 
It  is  not  every  commune  that  is  at  the  gates  of  a  great 
city.  In  every  affair  of  this  nature,  it  is  necessary 
to  consult  the  spirit  of  the  country,  its  situation,  its 
resources,  to  study  the  land,  the  men,  and  the 
things,  and  not  undertake  to  plant  vines  in  Normandy. 


8o  THE  COUNfTRY  DOCTOR 

Therefore,  nothing  is  more  variable  than  the  admin- 
istration: it  has  very  few  general  principles.  The 
law  is  uniform,  the  customs,  the  soils,  the  intelli- 
gences are  not;  now,  a4rninistration  is  the  art  of 
applying  the  laws  without  offending  the  interests, 
everything  therein  is  then  local.  On  the  other  side 
of  the  mountain  at  the  foot  of  which  lies  our  aban- 
doned village,  it  is  impossible  to  plough  with  wheel- 
ploughs,  the  soil  has  not  depth  enough;  well,  if  the 
mayor  of  that  commune  had  wished  to  imitate  our 
methods,  he  would  have  ruined  his  people;  I  advised 
him  to  plant  vineyards;  and,  last  year,  this  little  dis- 
trict had  an  excellent  vintage,  it  exchanges  its  wine 
for  our  grain.  In  short,  I  had  some  credit  with  those 
to  whom  I  preach;  we  were  constantly  in  accord.  I 
cured  my  peasants  of  their  maladies  so  easy  to  cure; 
there  is  never  a  question,  in  fact,  of  anything  more 
difficult  than  building  up  their  strength  by  nourishing 
food.  Whether  through  economy  or  through  poverty, 
the  country  people  nourish  themselves  so  inefficiently 
that  their  illnesses  come  only  from  their  indigence, 
and  generally  their  health  is  very  fair. 

"  When  1  had  decided  religiously  upon  this  life  of 
obscure  resignation,  I  hesitated  a  long  time  whether 
to  make  myself  a  cure,  a  country  doctor,  or  a  justice 
of  the  peace.  It  is  not  without  reason,  my  dear 
monsieur,  that  they  are  proverbially  classed  together, 
the  three  black  robes:  the  priest,  the  man  of  law,  and 
the  physician, — one  heals  the  wounds  of  the  soul,  the 
second  those  of  the  purse,  the  third  those  of  the  body; 
they  represent  society  in  its  three  principal  terms  of 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  8 1 

existence, — conscience,  property,  health.  Formerly 
the  first,  later  the  second,  composed  the  whole  State. 
Those  who  have  preceded  us  upon  the  earth  thought, 
perhaps  with  reason,  that  the  priest,  the  guide  of 
ideas,  should  be  the  whole  government, — he  was 
then  king,  pontiff,  and  judge;  but  everything  was 
then  belief  and  conscience.  To-day,  everything  is 
changed;  let  us  take  our  epoch  such  as  it  is.  Well, 
I  believe  that  the  progress  of  civilization  and  the 
welfare  of  the  masses  depend  upon  these  three  men; 
they  are  the  three  powers  which  immediately  im- 
press upon  the  people  the  action  of  facts,  of  interests, 
and  of  principles,  the  three  great  results  produced  in 
a  nation  by  events,  by  property  and  by  ideas. 

"  Time  progresses  and  brings  changes,  property 
augments  or  diminishes,  everything  must  be  regulated 
according  to  these  divers  mutations, — ^thence  come 
the  principles  of  order.  In  order  to  civilize,  to  create 
productions,  the  masses  must  be  made  to  compre- 
hend in  what  the  individual  interest  is  in  accord 
with  the  national  interests,  which  resolve  them- 
selves into  facts,  interests,  and  principles.  These 
three  professions,  necessarily  in  touch  with  these 
human  results,  have  thus  seemed  to  me  to  be  obliged 
to  be  to-day  the  greatest  levers  of  civilization;  they 
alone  can  constantly  offer  to  a  man  of  position  effica- 
cious means  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the 
poorer  classes,  with  which  they  are  in  constant 
relation.  But  the  peasant  listens  more  willingly  to 
the  man  who  prescribes  for  him  a  remedy  that  will 
save  his  body  than  to  the  priest  who  discourses  upon 
6 


82  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

the  salvation  of  the  soul, — one  can  talk  to  him  of  the 
earth  which  he  cultivates,  the  other  is  obliged  to 
communicate  with  him  concerning  Heaven,  of  which, 
to-day,  unfortunately,  he  thinks  very  little;  I  say  un- 
fortunately, for  the  dogma  of  the  life  to  come  is  not 
only  a  consolation,  but,  still  more,  an  instrument 
adapted  to  govern  with.  Is  not  religion  the  sole 
power  which  sanctions  social  laws?  We  have  re- 
cently vindicated  God.  In  the  absence  of  religion, 
the  government  was  obliged  to  invent  the  Terror  to 
render  its  laws  executive;  but  that  was  a  human 
terror;  it  has  passed  away. 

"  Well,  monsieur,  when  a  peasant  is  sick,  nailed  to 
his  couch,  or  convalescent,  he  is  obliged  to  listen  to 
consecutive  reasons,  and  he  comprehends  them  bet- 
ter when  they  are  clearly  presented  to  him.  It  was 
this  reflection  which  made  me  a  doctor.  I  reckoned 
with  my  peasants,  for  them;  I  gave  them  only  advice 
of  a  certain  effect  which  constrains  them  to  recog- 
nize the  justness  of  my  views.  With  the  people,  it 
is  necessary  to  be  always  infallible.  Infallibility 
made  Napoleon;  it  would  have  made  of  him  a  god, 
if  the  universe  had  not  heard  him  fall  at  Waterloo. 
If  Mahomet  created  a  religion,  after  having  con- 
quered a  third  of  the  globe,  it  was  by  concealing 
from  the  world  the  spectacle  of  his  death.  For  the 
mayor  of  a  village  and  the  conqueror,  the  same 
principles, — the  nation  and  the  commune  are  in  the 
same  troop.  The  masses  are  everywhere  the  same. 
Finally,  I  showed  myself  to  be  rigorous  with  those  to 
whom  I  opened  my  purse.     Had  it  not  been  for  this 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  83 

firmness,  everyone  would  have  mocked  at  me.  The 
peasants,  as  well  as  people  of  the  world,  end  by 
having  a  contempt  for  the  man  whom  they  deceive. 
To  be  duped,  is  not  that  to  have  committed  an  act  of 
weakness  ?  strength  alone  governs. 

"I  have  never  asked  a  denier  of  anyone  for  my  serv- 
ices excepting  of  those  who  are  known  to  be  wealthy; 
but  I  have  left  no  one  ignorant  of  their  proper  value. 
I  do  not  give  my  medicines  gratuitously,  except  when 
the  patient  is  indigent.  If  my  peasants  do  not  pay 
me,  they  know  their  debts;  sometimes  they  appease 
their  consciences  by  bringing  me  oats  for  my  horses, 
wheat  when  it  is  not  dear.  But  should  the  miller 
offer  me  eels  only  for  the  payment  of  my  services, 
I  would  say  to  him  that  he  was  too  generous  for  so 
little;  my  politeness  bears  fruit, — in  the  winter  I  will 
obtain  from  him  some  sacks  of  flour  for  the  poor. 
Yes,  monsieur,  these  people  have  a  heart  when  it  is 
not  spoiled.  To-day,  I  think  more  good  of  them  and 
less  evil  than  in  the  past." 

"You  have  given  yourself  a  great  deal  of  care!" 
said  Genestas. 

"I?  not  at  all,"  replied  Benassis.  "It  has  not 
cost  me  any  more  to  say  something  useful  than  to 
utter  nonsense.  In  going  among  them,  in  talking,  in 
laughing,  I  spoke  to  them  of  themselves.  At  first, 
these  people  would  not  listen  to  me,  I  had  a  great  deal 
of  repugnance  to  overcome  in  them, — I  was  a  bour- 
geois, and  for  them  a  bourgeois  is  an  enemy.  This 
contest  amused  me.  Between  doing  good  and  do- 
ing evil  there  exists  no  other  difference  than  that 


84  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

between  the  peace  of  your  conscience  and  its  trouble; 
the  effort  is  the  same.  If  the  scamps  were  willing 
to  behave  themselves,  they  would  be  millionaires, 
instead  of  being  hanged,  that  is  all." 

"Monsieur,"  exclaimed  Jacquotte,  entering,  "the 
dinner  is  getting  cold!" 

"  Monsieur,"  said  Genestas,  arresting  the  doctor 
by  the  arm,  "  I  have  only  one  observation  to  offer 
you  on  that  which  I  have  just  heard.  I  have  no 
knowledge  of  the  wars  of  Mahomet,  so  that  I  cannot 
judge  of  his  military  talents;  but  if  you  had  seen 
the  Emperor  manoeuvering  during  the  campaign  of 
France,  you  would  have  readily  taken  him  for  a  god; 
and  if  he  were  vanquished  at  Waterloo,  it  was  that 
he  was  more  than  a  man:  he  weighed  too  much 
upon  the  earth,  and  the  earth  turned  under  him, 
that  was  it!  I  am,  moreover,  perfectly  of  your 
opinion  in  every  other  respect,  and,  tonnerre  de 
Dieu!  the  woman  who  bore  you  did  not  lose  her 
time." 

"Come,"  said  Benassis,  smiling,  "let  us  go  to 
dinner." 

The  dining-room  was  entirely  panelled  and  painted 
in  gray.  The  furniture  at  that  time  consisted  of 
some  straw  chairs,  a  buffet,  closets,  a  stove,  and 
the  famous  clock  of  the  late  cure,  and  white  cur- 
tains at  the  windows.  The  table,  furnished  with 
white  linen,  had  on  it  nothing  suggestive  of  luxury. 
The  dishes  were  of  earthenware.  The  soup,  made 
after  a  recipe  of  the  late  cure,  was  the  most  sub- 
stantial bouillon  that  ever  a  cook  had  boiled  down. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  85 

Hardly  had  the  doctor  and  his  host  finished  their 
soup  when  a  man  came  hastily  into  the  kitchen  and, 
in  spite  of  Jacquotte,  made  a  sudden  irruption  into 
the  dining-room. 

"Well,  what  is  it?"  asked  the  doctor. 

"It  is,  monsieur,  that  our  good  woman,  Madame 
Vigneau,  has  turned  all  white,  so  white  that  it 
frightens  us  all!" 

"Well!"  exclaimed  Benassis,  cheerfully,  "  I  must 
leave  the  table." 

He  rose.  In  spite  of  the  doctor's  entreaty,  Ge- 
nestas  swore  in  military  fashion,  throwing  down 
his  napkin,  that  he  would  not  remain  at  the  table 
without  his  host,  and,  in  fact,  returned  to  warm 
himself  in  the  salon,  reflecting  on  the  miseries  which 
are  inevitably  to  be  encountered  in  every  condition 
to  which  man  is  here  below  subjected. 

Benassis  presently  returned,  and  the  two  future 
friends  returned  to  the  table. 

"  Taboureau  came  just  now  to  speak  to  you,"  said 
Jacquotte  to  her  master,  bringing  in  the  plates  which 
she  had  kept  warm. 

**  Who  is  sick  in  his  house.?"  he  asked. 

"  No  one,  monsieur;  he  wishes  to  consult  you 
for  himself,  according  to  what  he  said,  and  will 
return." 

"  It  is  well.  This  Taboureau,"  returned  Benassis, 
addressing  Genestas,  "  is  for  me  a  whole  treatise  on 
philosophy;  watch  him  attentively  when  he  comes, 
certainly  he  will  amuse  you.  He  was  a  laboring 
man,  a  worthy  man,  economical,  eating  little  and 


86  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

working  much.  As  soon  as  the  rogue  had  secured  a 
few  crowns  for  himself,  his  intelligence  developed;  he 
followed  the  movement  which  1  had  communicated 
to  this  poor  canton,  seeking  to  profit  by  it  to  enrich 
himself.  In  eight  years  he  has  made  a  large  for- 
tune, large  for  this  canton.  He  has  perhaps  at 
present  some  forty  thousand  francs.  But  I  will  give 
you  one  chance  in  a  thousand  to  guess  by  what 
means  he  has  been  able  to  acquire  this  sum.  He  is 
a  usurer,  so  thorough-going  a  usurer,  and  a  usurer 
by  a  combination  so  well-founded  upon  the  interests 
of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  canton,  that  I  should 
lose  my  time  if  I  undertook  to  disabuse  them  con- 
cerning the  advantages  which  they  believe  they 
draw  from  their  relations  with  Taboureau.  When 
this  devil  of  a  man  saw  everybody  cultivating  his 
land,  he  went  about  the  neighborhood  to  purchase 
grain  to  furnish  the  poor  with  the  seed  which  it 
would  be  necessary  for  them  to  have.  Here,  as  every- 
where, the  peasants,  and  even  some  farmers,  have 
not  enough  money  to  pay  for  their  seed.  To  some 
of  them.  Master  Taboureau  lent  a  sack  of  barley  for 
which  they  returned  to  him  a  sack  of  rye  after  the 
harvest;  to  others,  a  setier — about  twelve  bushels — 
of  grain  for  a  sack  of  flour.  To-day,  my  man  has 
extended  this  singular  species  of  commerce  through- 
out the  department.  If  nothing  stops  him  on  the 
way,  he  will  gain,  perhaps,  a  million. 

"Well,  my  dear  monsieur,  the  workman  Tabou- 
reau, an  honest  fellow,  obliging,  good-natured,  would 
give  a  helping  hand  to  whoever  asked  him;  but,  in 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  87 

proportion  to  his  gains,  Monsieur  Taboureau  has  be- 
come litigious,  tricky,  contemptuous.  The  richer  he 
becomes,  the  worse  he  gets.  As  soon  as  the  peasant 
passes  from  his  purely  laborious  life  to  a  comfortable 
living  or  to  landed  possession,  he  becomes  insupport- 
ablev^  There  exists  a  class,  half  virtuous,  half  vicious, 
half  learned,  half  ignorant,  which  will  always  be  the 
despair  of  governments.  You  will  see  a  little  of  the 
spirit  of  this  class  in  Taboureau;  a  man  simple  in 
appearance,  ignorant  even,  but  certainly  deep  when 
his  own  interests  are  concerned." 

The  sound  of  a  heavy  step  announced  the  arrival 
of  the  lender  of  grain. 

"Come  in,  Taboureau,"  exclaimed  Benassis. 

Thus  forewarned  by  the  physician,  the  comman- 
dant examined  the  peasant  and  saw  in  Taboureau  a 
thin  man,  much  stooped,  with  a  round  forehead,  very 
much  wrinkled.  This  hollow  countenance  seemed 
pierced  by  two  little  gray  eyes  spotted  with  black. 
The  usurer  had  a  tight  mouth,  and  his  thin  chin  had 
a  tendency  to  meet  his  nose  ironically  hooked.  His 
prominent  cheeks  presented  those  diverging  lines 
which  denote  a  wandering  life  and  the  cunning  of  a 
dealer.  His  hair  was  already  turning  gray.  He 
wore  a  blue  vest,  sufficiently  clean,  the  square  pock- 
ets of  which  flapped  on  his  thighs,  and  the  open 
skirts  allowed  to  be  seen  a  white,  flowered  waistcoat. 
He  stood  planted  upon  his  legs,  leaning  upon  a  stick 
with  a  knobbed  end.  A  little  spaniel  followed  the 
grain  merchant  into  the  room  in  spite  of  Jacquotte, 
and  lay  down  near  him. 


88  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  Well,  what  is  it?"  asked  Benassis. 

Taboureau  looked  with  a  distrustful  air  at  the  un- 
known person  seated  at  the  table  with  the  doctor, 
and  said: 

"  It  is  not  a  case  of  sickness,  monsieur  le  maire; 
but  you  know  how  to  heal  the  injuries  of  the  purse 
as  well  as  those  of  the  body,  and  I  come  to  consult 
you  about  a  little  difficulty  that  we  are  having  with  a 
man  of  Saint-Laurent." 

"  Why  do  you  not  go  to  see  monsieur  the  justice 
of  the  peace,  or  his  clerk?" 

"Eh!  it  is  because  monsieur  is  much  more  skilful, 
and  I  should  be  more  sure  of  winning  my  case  if  I 
could  have  his  approbation." 

"My  dear  Taboureau,  I  give  willingly  my  medical 
consultations  gratuitously  to  the  poor,  but  I  cannot 
examine  for  nothing  the  lawsuit  of  a  man  as  rich  as 
you  are.     Knowledge  costs  dearly  to  acquire." 

Taboureau  began  to  twist  his  hat  in  his  hand. 

"  If  you  want  my  advice,  as  it  will  save  you  the 
big  sous  which  you  would  be  forced  to  count  out  to 
the  lawyers  in  Grenoble,  you  will  send  a  bag  of  rye 
to  the  woman  Martin,  she  who  brings  up  the  hospital 
children." 

''Dame!  monsieur,  I  will  do  that  willingly,  if  it 
seems  to  you  necessary.  Can  I  relate  my  business 
without  disturbing  monsieur?"  he  added,  indicating 
Genestas.  "  Well,  then,  monsieur,"  he  went  on,  at 
a  nod  of  the  head  from  the  doctor,  "  a  man  of  Saint- 
Laurent,  two  months  ago  from  now,  then  came  to  see 
me.  '  Taboureau,'  he  said  to  me,  '  could  you  sell  me 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  89 

a  hundred  and  thirty-seven  setiers  of  barley — about 
1644  bushels?'  'Why  not?'  I  said  to  him;  'that  is 
my  trade.  Do  you  want  them  right  away?'  'No,' 
he  said  to  me;  *  at  the  beginning  of  spring,  for  March.' 
*  Good!'  Then  he  disputed  about  the  price,  and, 
over  our  wine,  we  agreed  that  he  should  pay  me  for 
them  at  the  price  of  barley  at  the  last  market  at 
Grenoble,  and  that  I  should  deliver  them  to  him  in 
March,  deducting  the  loss  in  storage;  that  was  under- 
stood. But,  my  dear  monsieur,  the  barley  goes  up, 
up;  there  was  my  barley  boiling  up  like  a  milk-soup. 
I,  pressed  for  money,  sell  my  barley.  That  was  very 
natural,  was  it  not,  monsieur?" 

"  No,"  said  Benassis,  "  your  barley  no  longer  be- 
longed to  you;  you  were  only  holding  it  for  another. 
And,  if  barley  had  fallen,  would  you  not  have  com- 
pelled your  purchaser  to  take  it  at  the  price  agreed 
upon?" 

"  But,  monsieur,  he  would  not  perhaps  have  paid 
me,  that  man.  When  you  go  to  war,  carry  on  war! 
The  merchant  should  profit  by  his  gains  when  they 
come  to  him.  After  all,  a  merchandise  only  belongs 
to  you  when  you  have  paid  for  it;  is  not  that  true, 
monsieur  I'officier?  for  it  can  readily  be  seen  that 
monsieur  has  served  in  the  army." 

"Taboureau,"  said  Benassis,  gravely,  "misfortune 
will  come  to  you.  God  punishes  evil  actions  sooner 
or  later.  How  can  a  man  as  capable,  as  well-informed 
as  you  are,  a  man  who  carries  on  his  business  in  an 
honorable  manner,  set  such  an  example  of  dishon- 
esty in  this  canton?     If  you  support  such  practices. 


90  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

how  can  you  expect  that  the  poor  folks  will  remain 
honest,  and  not  steal  from  you?  Your  workmen 
will  rob  you  of  a  part  of  the  time  which  they  owe  to 
you,  and  everyone  here  will  become  demoralized. 
You  are  wrong.  Your  barley  is  accounted  as  de- 
livered. If  it  had  been  carried  away  by  the  man  of 
Saint-Laurent,  you  would  not  have  taken  it  back 
from  him;  you  have  therefore  disposed  of  a  thing 
which  no  longer  belonged  to  you,  your  barley  was 
already  converted  into  current  money,  according  to 
your  bargain. — But  go  on." 

Genestas  threw  at  the  doctor  a  glance  of  intelli- 
gence to  call  his  attention  to  the  immobility  of  Tabou- 
reau.  Not  a  muscle  of  the  countenance  of  the  usurer 
had  moved  during  this  rebuke,  his  forehead  had  not 
reddened,  his  little  eyes  remained  calm. 

"Well,  monsieur,  I  am  summoned  to  furnish  the 
barley  at  the  price  of  this  winter;  but  I  hold  that  I  do 
not  owe  it." 

"Listen,  Taboureau,  deliver  your  barley  quickly, 
or  no  longer  count  upon  the  esteem  of  anyone. 
Even  if  you  gained  such  a  suit  as  this  you  would  be 
considered  a  man  without  faith  or  law,  who  did  not 
keep  his  word,  without  honor — " 

"  Go  on,  do  not  be  afraid,  tell  me  I  am  a  cheat,  a 
beggar,  a  thief.  Such  things  are  said  in  business, 
monsieur  the  mayor,  without  offending  anyone.  In 
business,  you  see,  everyone  for  himself." 

"  Well,  why  do  you  voluntarily  place  yourself  in 
the  position  of  meriting  such  terms?" 

"  But,  monsieur,  if  the  law  is  on  my  side — " 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  91 

*'  But  the  law  is  not  at  all  on  your  side.*' 

**  Are  you  sure  of  that,  monsieur,  sure,  sure?  for, 
you  see,  it  is  an  important  affair." 

"  Certainly  I  am  sure  of  it.  If  I  were  not  at  table, 
I  would  make  you  read  the  Code.  But  if  the  suit  is 
tried,  you  will  lose  it,  and  you  will  never  set  your 
foot  in  my  house  again.  I  do  not  wish  to  receive 
people  for  whom  I  have  no  respect.  Understand, 
you  will  lose  your  case." 

"Ah!  not  at  all,  monsieur,  I  shall  not  lose  it  at 
all,"  said  Taboureau.  "  Do  you  see,  monsieur  the 
mayor,  it  is  the  man  of  Saint-Laurent  who  owes  me 
the  barley;  it  is  I  who  bought  it  of  him,  and  it  is  he 
who  refuses  to  deliver  it  to  me.  I  wanted  to  be  very 
certain  that  I  should  win  before  I  went  to  see  the 
sheriff  and  engaged  myself  in  expenses." 

Genestas  and  the  doctor  looked  at  each  other, 
concealing  their  surprise  at  the  ingenious  plan 
evolved  by  this  man  to  ascertain  the  truth  concern- 
ing this  judicial  case. 

"Well,  Taboureau,  your  man  is  untrustworthy, 
and  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  bargains  with  such 
people." 

"  Ah  !  monsieur,  those  people  understand  busi- 
ness." 

"  Good-night,  Taboureau." 

"  Your  servant,  monsieur  the  mayor  and  the 
company." 

"Well,"  said  Benassis,  when  the  usurer  had  de- 
parted, "do  you  not  think  that  at  Paris  that  man 
would  soon  be  a  millionaire?" 


92  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

When  the  dinner  was  ended,  the  doctor  and  his 
lodger  returned  to  the  salon,  where  they  conversed 
during  the  rest  of  the  evening,  while  waiting  for 
bedtime,  on  war  and  politics,  a  conversation  during 
which  Genestas  manifested  the  most  violent  antip- 
athy to  the  English. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  the  doctor,  "  may  I  know  whom 
I  have  the  honor  of  having  for  guest?" 

"  My  name  is  Pierre  Bluteau,"  replied  Genestas, 
"  and  I  am  a  captain  at  Grenoble." 

"  Very  good,  monsieur.  Will  you  follow  the  re- 
gime that  Monsieur  Gravier  did  .<*  In  the  morning,  after 
dejeuner,  he  was  interested  in  accompanying  me  in 
my  rounds  in  the  neighborhood.  It  is  not  altogether 
certain  that  you  will  take  pleasure  in  the  things  with 
which  I  am  occupied,  they  are  so  commonplace.  After 
all,  you  are  neither  a  proprietor  nor  mayor  of  the  vil- 
lage, and  you  will  see  in  the  canton  nothing  that  you 
have  not  seen  elsewhere.  All  the  thatched  cottages 
resemble  each  other;  but,  however,  you  will  get  the 
fresh  air  and  you  will  give  some  object  to  your  ride." 

"Nothing  can  give  me  more  pleasure  than  this 
proposition,  and  I  did  not  venture  to  make  it  to  you, 
for  fear  of  incommoding  you." 

The  commandant,  Genestas,  whose  name  we  will 
preserve,  notwithstanding  his  feigned  pseudonym, 
was  conducted  by  his  host  to  a  chamber  situated  on 
the  first  floor  above  the  salon. 

"Good,"  said  Benassis,  "Jacquotte  has  made  a 
fire  for  you.  If  you  need  anything,  you  will  find 
a  bell-pull  at  the  side  of  your  bed." 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  93 

"  I  do  not  think  that  there  can  be  the  least  thing 
lacking,"  exclaimed  Genestas.  "  Here  is  even  a  boot- 
jack. It  is  necessary  to  be  an  old  trooper  to  know 
the  value  of  that  piece  of  furniture!  In  war,  mon- 
sieur, it  happens  more  than  once  that  you  would  be 
willing  to  burn  a  house  down  to  get  a  beast  of  a 
boot-jack. — After  a  number  of  marches,  and  es- 
pecially after  an  action,  it  sometimes  happens  that 
the  feet,  swollen  in  the  wet  leather,  will  yield  to  no 
effort;  I  have  gone  to  sleep  more  than  once  in  my 
boots.  When  one  is  alone,  the  misfortune  is,  how- 
ever, supportable."' 

The  commandant  winked,  to  give  to  these  last 
words  a  sort  of  artful  profundity;  then  he  began  to 
look  about  him,  not  without  surprise,  at  a  chamber 
in  which  everything  was  commodious,  clean,  and 
almost  rich. 

"What  luxury!"  said  he.  "You  must  be  mar- 
vellously well  lodged.?  " 

"Come  and  see,"  said  the  doctor;  "I  am  your 
neighbor,  we  are  separated  only  by  the  stairway." 

Genestas  was  sufficiently  surprised  to  perceive  on 
entering  the  physician's  room  a  bare  chamber,  the 
walls  of  which  were  ornamented  only  by  an  old 
yellowish  paper  with  brown  rosettes,  and  discol- 
ored in  places.  The  bedstead,  of  iron,  coarsely 
varnished,  which  had  over  it  a  wooden  rod  from 
which  fell  two  curtains  of  gray  calico,  and  at  its  foot 
a  wretched  narrow  carpet,  worn  threadbare,  resem- 
bled a  bed  in  a  hospital.  At  the  side  of  the  bed  was 
one  of  those  night-tables  with  four  feet,  the  rolling 


94  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

front  of  which  opens  and  shuts,  making  a  noise  like 
castanets.  Three  chairs,  two  armchairs  in  straw, 
a  chest  of  drawers  in  walnut,  on  which  was  a  basin 
and  a  very  ancient  water-pot,  the  cover  of  which 
was  secured  by  leaden  hinges,  completed  this  furnish- 
ing. The  chimney-hearth  was  cold,  and  all  the 
articles  necessary  for  shaving  were  displayed  on  the 
painted  stone  of  the  mantel,  before  an  old  mirror 
hung  on  the  wall  by  a  bit  of  cord.  The  tiled  floor, 
cleanly  swept,  was  worn  in  several  places,  broken 
and  sunk.  Curtains  of  gray  calico  bordered  with 
green  fringes  ornamented  the  two  windows.  Every- 
thing, even  to  the  round  table,  on  which  were  strewn 
some  papers,  an  inkstand,  and  some  pens,  every- 
thing in  this  simple  picture,  on  which  the  extreme 
cleanliness  maintained  by  Jacquotte  stamped  a  sort 
of  correctness,  gave  the  idea  of  a  life  almost  mo- 
nastic, indifferent  to  things  and  full  of  sentiments. 
An  open  door  allowed  the  commandant  to  see  into 
a  cabinet,  in  which  the  doctor  doubtless  occupied 
himself  very  little.  This  apartment  was  in  a  condi- 
tion nearly  similar  to  that  of  the  bed-chamber.  A 
few  dusty  books  lay  scattered  upon  the  dusty  boards, 
and  the  shelves  filled  with  labelled  bottles  indicated 
that  pharmacy  there  occupied  more  space  than 
science. 

"  You  are  going  to  ask  me  why  this  difference 
between  your  chamber  and  mine.?"  said  Benassis. 
*'  Listen.  I  have  always  been  ashamed  of  those  who 
lodge  their  guests  under  the  roof,  and  give  them 
those  mirrors  which  disfigure  you  to  such  a  degree 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  95 

that,  in  looking  in  tiiem,  you  think  yourself  either 
smaller  or  larger  than  life,  or  ill,  or  struck  with 
apoplexy.  Should  we  not  endeavor  to  make  our 
friends  find  their  temporary  apartment  the  most 
agreeable  one  possible?  Hospitality  seems  to  me  at 
once  a  virtue,  a  happiness,  and  a  luxury;  but,  under 
whatever  aspect  you  consider  it,  not  excepting  the 
case  in  which  it  is  a  mercantile  speculation,  is  it  not 
necessary  to  display  for  your  guest  and  for  your 
friend  all  the  cajoleries,  all  the  blandishments  of 
life? 

"  In  your  room,  then,  are  the  handsome  furniture, 
the  warm  carpet,  the  draperies,  the  clock,  the 
candlesticks,  and  the  night  light;  the  wax  candle  is 
for  you,  for  you  all  the  cares  of  Jacquotte,  who  has 
doubtless  brought  for  you  new  slippers,  milk,  and 
her  warming-pan.  I  hope  that  you  will  never  have 
been  more  comfortably  seated  than  you  will  be  in 
the  soft  armchair,  the  discovery  of  which  was  made 
by  the  defunct  cure,  I  do  not  know  where;  but  it  is 
true  that  in  everything,  in  order  to  find  patterns  of 
the  good,  the  handsome,  the  commodious,  we  must 
have  recourse  to  the  Church.  In  short,  I  hope  that 
in  your  chamber  everything  will  please  you.  You 
will  find  there  good  razors,  excellent  soap,  and  all 
those  little  accessories  which  make  home  life  such 
a  pleasant  thing.  But,  my  dear  Monsieur  Bluteau, 
though  my  opinions  concerning  hospitality  do  not 
fully  explain  the  difference  between  our  two  apart- 
ments, you  will  doubtless  understand  remarkably 
well  the  bareness  of  my  chamber  and  the  disorder  of 


96  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

my  cabinet  when  to-morrow  you  will  witness  the 
comings  and  the  goings  which  take  place  in  my 
house.  In  the  first  place,  my  life  is  not  an  indoors 
one,  I  am  always  abroad.  If  1  remain  at  home,  the 
peasants  are  coming  to  see  me  at  every  moment;  I 
belong  to  them,  body,  soul,  and  bed-chamber.  Can 
I  give  myself  all  the  cares  of  etiquette  and  those 
caused  by  the  inevitable  damages  which  would  be 
inflicted  upon  my  property  involuntarily  by  these 
worthy  people.?  Luxury  is  suitable  only  in  hotels, 
in  chateaux,  in  boudoirs,  and  in  the  chambers  of 
friends.  Finally,  I  am  hardly  ever  here  but  to 
sleep;  of  what  use,  then,  to  me  are  the  furnishings 
of  wealth.?  Moreover,  you  do  not  know  how  in- 
different to  me  is  everything  here  below!" 

They  wished  each  other  a  friendly  good-night, 
grasping  each  other's  hands  cordially,  and  they 
went  to  bed.  The  commandant  did  not  fall  asleep 
till  he  had  reflected  long  upon  this  man  who,  from 
hour  to  hour,  constantly  increased  in  his  esteem. 


II 


ACROSS  THE   COUNTRY 

The  friendship  which  every  horseman  feels  for 
his  steed  drew  Genestas  in  the  morning  to  the 
stable,  and  he  was  satisfied  with  the  care  taken  of 
his  horse  by  Nicolle. 

"Already  up,  Commandant  Bluteau?"  exclaimed 
Benassis,  coming  to  meet  his  guest.  "You  are  in- 
deed a  soldier,  you  hear  the  morning  gun  every- 
where, even  in  town!" 

"Is  everything  well?"  Genestas  replied,  offering 
him  his  hand  with  a  friendly  gesture. 

"I  am  never  positively  well,"  replied  Benassis, 
in  a  tone  half  sad  and  half  cheerful. 

"Has  monsieur  slept  well?"  said  Jacquotte  to 
Genestas. 

"Parbleu!  ma  telle,  you  made  the  bed  as  if  it 
were  for  a  bride." 

Jacquotte,  smiling,  followed  her  master  and  the 
military  man.     After  seeing  them  seated  at  table: 

"He  is  a  good  fellow,  all  the  same,  monsieur 
I'ofificier,"  she  said  to  Nicolle. 

"  I  think  so  indeed,  he  has  already  given  me  forty 
sous!" 

7  (97) 


98  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  We  will  begin  by  going  to  visit  two  dead  peo- 
ple," said  Benassis  to  his  guest  as  they  left  the 
dining-room.  "  Although  the  physicians  rarely  wish 
to  find  themselves  face  to  face  with  their  so-called 
victims,  I  will  take  you  to  two  houses  in  which  you 
can  make  a  sufficiently  curious  observation  of  hu- 
man nature.  You  will  there  see  two  scenes  which 
will  prove  to  you  how  much  the  mountaineers  differ 
from  the  inhabitants  of  the  plain  in  the  expression 
of  their  feelings.  That  part  of  our  canton  which  is 
situated  upon  the  high  peaks  preserves  customs 
tinged  with  an  antique  color  and  which  recall 
vaguely  scenes  from  the  Bible.  There  is,  upon  the 
chain  of  our  mountains,  a  line  traced  by  nature  on 
each  side  of  which  everything  is  different  in  aspect, — 
above  it,  strength;  below  it,  dexterity;  above,  lofty 
sentiments;  below,  a  perpetual  concern  for  the  inter- 
ests of  material  life.  With  the  exception  of  the 
valley  of  Ajou,  of  which  the  northern  slope  is 
peopled  by  imbeciles  and  the  southern  by  intelli- 
gent people,  two  populations  which,  separated  only 
by  a  stream,  are  dissimilar  in  every  respect,  stature, 
carriage,  physiognomy,  manners,  occupation,  I  have 
nowhere  seen  this  difference  more  marked  than  it  is 
here.  This  fact  should  oblige  the  administrators  of 
a  country  to  undertake  very  serious  studies  relative 
to  the  application  of  the  laws  to  the  masses. — But 
the  horses  are  ready;  let  us  go!" 

The  two  horsemen  presently  arrived  at  a  habita- 
tion situated  in  that  part  of  the  district  which  faced  the 
mountains  of  the  Grande-Chartreuse.     At  the  door 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  99 

of  this  house,  which  appeared  to  be  sufficiently  neat, 
they  perceived  a  coffin  covered  by  a  black  cloth, 
placed  upon  two  chairs,  surrounded  by  four  candles; 
upon  a  stool  was  a  copper  platter,  in  which  a  sprig 
of  boxwood  was  steeping  in  the  holy  water.  Each 
passer-by  entered  the  court,  went  and  kneeled  before 
the  body,  said  a  Pater,  and  sprinkled  a  few  drops  of 
holy  water  upon  the  bier.  Above  the  black  cloth 
rose  the  green  bunches  of  a  jessamine  planted  by  the 
side  of  the  door,  and  over  the  impost  ran  the  tor- 
tuous branches  of  a  vine  already  in  leaf.  A  young 
girl  was  finishing  sw*eeping  before  the  house,  obeying 
that  vague  necessity  of  making  things  presentable 
which  all  ceremonies,  even  the  saddest  of  all,  make 
felt.  The  eldest  son  of  the  dead  man,  a  young  peas- 
ant of  twenty-two,  was  standing  motionless,  leaning 
against  the  side  of  the  door.  There  were  in  his  eyes 
tears  which  welled  up  without  falling,  or  which,  per- 
haps, at  moments  he  endeavored  to  dry  unperceived. 
At  the  moment  when  Benassis  and  Genestas  entered 
the  court,  after  having  fastened  their  horses  to  one  of 
the  poplars  growing  along  a  little  wall  breast-high, 
over  which  they  had  surveyed  this  scene,  the  widow 
came  out  of  her  stable,  accompanied  by  a  woman 
who  carried  a  pot  full  of  milk. 

"Take  courage,  my  poor  Pelletier,"  said  the  lat- 
ter. 

"Ah!  my  dear  woman,  when  one  has  lived  twenty- 
five  years  with  a  man,  it  is  very  hard  to  separate 
from  him!" 

And  her  eyes  filled  with  tears. 


100  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  Will  you  pay  the  two  sous?"  she  added,  after  a 
pause,  extending  her  hand  to  her  neighbor. 

"Ah!  to  be  sure,  I  forgot,"  said  the  other  woman, 
offering  her  her  coin.  "  Come,  now,  console  your- 
self, neighbor. — Ah!  here  is  Monsieur  Benassis." 

"Well,  my  poor  mother,  are  you  getting  on 
better?"  asked  the  doctor. 

"Dame!  my  dear  monsieur,"  she  replied,  weep- 
ing, "  it  is  necessary  to  keep  about,  all  the  same. 
I  say  to  myself  that  my  man  will  suffer  no  more. 
He  suffered  so  much! — But  come  in,  messieurs. 
Jacques,  give  these  messieurs  some  chairs.  Come, 
now,  move  yourself.  Pardi!  you  will  not  bring  your 
poor  father  to  life,  if  you  should  stay  there  a  hun- 
dred years!  And  now,  you  will  have  to  work  for 
two." 

"  No,  no,  my  good  woman,  leave  your  son  where 
he  is;  we  will  not  sit  down.  You  have  there  a  lad 
who  will  take  care  of  you,  and  who  is  quite  capable 
of  taking  his  father's  place." 

"  Go  then  and  dress  yourself,  Jacques,"  exclaimed 
the  widow,  "  they  are  coming  to  get  it." 

"Well,  then,  adieu,  mother,"  said  Benassis. 

"Messieurs,  your  servant." 

"  You  see,"  said  the  physician,  "  here  death  is  ac- 
cepted as  a  foreseen  accident  which  does  not  interfere 
with  the  family  course  of  life,  and  mourning  even  is 
not  worn.  In  the  villages  no  one  wishes  to  go  to  this 
expense,  whether  through  poverty  or  through  econ- 
omy. In  the  country-places  the  wearing  of  mourn- 
ing, then,  does  not  exist.     Now,  monsieur,  mourning 


THE   COU^^•RY  DOCTOR  lOI 

is  neither  a  custom  nor  a  law;  it  is  sometiiing  much 
better,  it  is  an  institution  which  is  related  to  all  those 
laws  the  observance  of  which  depends  upon  the  same 
principle,  morality. 

"  Well,  notwithstanding  our  efforts,  neither  Mon- 
sieur Janvier  nor  I  have  been  able  to  make  our 
peasants  comprehend  the  great  importance  of  public 
demonstrations  for  the  maintenance  of  the  social 
order.  These  honest  people,  emancipated  yesterday, 
are  not  yet  prepared  to  appreciate  the  new  relations 
which  should  connect  them  with  these  general  ideas; 
as  yet,  they  have  gotten  as  far  only  as  those  ideas 
which  lead  to  order  and  physical  well-being;  later,  if 
some  one  continue  my  work,  they  will  arrive  at  the 
principles  which  serve  to  preserve  the  public  rights. 
In  fact,  it  is  not  sufficient  to  be  an  honest  man,  it  is 
necessary  to  seem  so.  Society  does  not  exist  alone 
through  ideas  of  morality;  in  order  to  maintain  itself, 
it  has  need  of  actions  in  harmony  with  these  ideas. 

**  In  the  greater  number  of  the  rural  communities, 
among  a  hundred  families  which  death  has  deprived 
of  their  head,  only  a  few  individuals,  endowed  with 
a  quick  sensibility,  will  keep  this  dead  man  long  in  re- 
membrance; but  all  the  others  will  have  completely 
forgotten  him  in  the  course  of  the  year.  Is  not  this 
forgetfulness  a  great  misfortune.?  A  religion  is  the 
heart  of  a  people,  it  expresses  their  feelings  and  en- 
larges them  in  giving  them  an  object;  but,  without  a 
God,  visibly  honored,  religion  does  not  exist,  and  in 
consequence  human  laws  have  no  strength.  If  con- 
science belongs  to  God  alone,  the  body  falls  under 


I02  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

the  sway  of  the  social  law;  now,  is  it  not  the  begin- 
ning of  atheism  to  thus  efface  the  outward  signs  of  a 
religious  sorrow,  not  to  indicate  clearly  to  children 
who  have  not  yet  begun  to  reflect,  and  to  all  those 
who  have  need  of  examples,  the  necessity  of  obedi- 
ence to  laws  by  a  visible  resignation  to  the  orders  of 
Providence,  which  afflicts  and  consoles,  which  gives 
and  takes  away  the  goods  of  this  world?  I  admit 
that,  after  having  passed  through  days  of  mocking 
incredulity,  I  have  here  come  to  comprehend  the 
value  of  religious  ceremonies,  those  of  family  solem- 
nities, the  importance  of  the  customs  and  festivals  of 
the  family  circle.  The  basis  of  human  societies  will 
always  be  the  family.  There  begins  the  action  of 
power  and  of  the  law;  there,  at  least,  should  obedi- 
ence be  learned.  The  family  spirit  and  the  paternal 
authority,  considered  in  all  their  relations,  are  two 
principles  as  yet  too  little  developed  in  our  new  legis- 
lative system.  The  family,  the  commune,  the  de- 
partment, all  our  country,  however,  rests  on  these. 
The  laws  should,  therefore,  be  based  upon  these  three 
great  divisions. 

"  In  my  opinion,  the  marriage  of  betrothed  couples, 
the  birth  of  children,  the  death  of  fathers,  cannot  be 
surrounded  by  too  many  observances.  That  which 
has  given  Catholicism  its  strength,  that  which  has 
so  deeply  rooted  it  in  manners  and  customs,  is  pre- 
cisely the  state  with  which  it  appears  in  the  solemn 
circumstances  of  life  to  environ  them  with  a  pomp  so 
simply  affecting,  so  grand,  when  the  priest  elevates 
himself  to  the  height  of  his  mission  and  when  he 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  103 

knows  how  to  bring  his  office  into  harmony  with  the 
sublimity  of  Christian  morality.  Formerly  I  consid- 
ered the  Catholic  religion  as  a  mass  of  bigotry  and  of 
superstition,  skilfully  manipulated,  which  an  intelli- 
gent civilization  should  reform.  Here,  I  have  recog- 
nized the  political  necessity  and  the  moral  utility  of 
it;  here,  1  have  comprehended  the  power  of  it  by  the 
very  meaning  of  the  word  which  expresses  it.  Re- 
ligion signifies  bond,  and  certainly  the  worship,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  religion  expressed,  constitutes  the 
only  force  which  can  bind  together  the  social  elements 
and  give  them  a  durable  form. 

"  Here,  in  short,  1  have  found  the  balm  with 
which  religion  soothes  the  wounds  of  life;  without  dis- 
cussing it,  I  have  felt  that  it  accords  admirably  with 
the  passionate  natures  and  manners  of  the  southern 
nations. — Take  the  road  which  ascends,"  said  the 
doctor,  interrupting  himself;  "we  must  reach  the 
plateau.  From  there,  we  will  overlook  the  two  val- 
leys, and  you  will  enjoy  a  beautiful  spectacle.  At 
an  elevation  of  about  three  thousand  feet  above  the 
Mediterranean,  we  shall  see  Savoy  and  Dauphiny, 
the  mountains  of  the  Lyonnais  and  the  Rhone.  We 
shall  be  in  another  commune,  a  mountainous  com- 
mune, in  which  you  will  see  in  one  of  Monsieur  Gra- 
vier's  farms  the  spectacle  of  which  I  have  spoken  to 
you,  that  natural  pomp  which  realizes  my  ideas  con- 
cerning the  great  events  of  life.  In  this  commune, 
mourning  is  worn  religiously.  The  poor  solicit  con- 
tributions in  order  to  be  able  to  purchase  for  them- 
selves their  black  garments.     In  these  circumstances, 


104  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

no  one  refuses  them  succor.  There  are  but  very  few- 
days  in  which  a  widow  does  not  speak  of  her  loss, 
always  with  weeping;  and  ten  years  after  her  mis- 
fortune her  feelings  are  as  deep  as  the  day  after. 
There,  the  manners  are  patriarchal, — the  father's 
authority  is  unlimited,  his  word  is  law;  he  eats 
alone,  seated  at  the  upper  end  of  the  table;  his 
wife  and  his  children  wait  on  him,  those  around 
him  do  not  speak  to  him  without  employing  certain 
respectful  formulas,  before  him  everyone  stands,  and 
uncovered. 

"  Brought  up  in  this  manner,  men  have  the  instinct 
of  their  grandeur.  These  customs  constitute,  in  my 
eyes,  a  noble  education.  Thus,  in  this  commune, 
the  inhabitants  are  generally  just,  economical,  and  in- 
dustrious. It  is  the  custom  for  each  father  of  a  family 
to  divide  his  property  equally  among  his  children 
when  age  forbids  him  to  work  longer;  his  children 
then  maintain  him.  During  the  last  century,  an  old 
man  of  ninety,  after  having  made  his  division  among 
his  four  children,  went  to  live  three  months  of  the 
year  with  each  of  them.  When  he  left  the  eldest 
to  go  to  the  youngest,  one  of  his  friends  asked  him: 
'Well,  are  you  satisfied.^"  'Upon  my  word,  yes,' 
replied  the  old  man,  '  they  have  treated  me  as  though 
I  were  their  child.'  This  speech,  monsieur,  appeared 
so  remarkable  to  an  officer  named  Vauvenargues,  a 
celebrated  moral  philosopher,  then  in  garrison  at 
Grenoble,  that  he  repeated  it  in  several  salons  in 
Paris,  where  this  fine  phrase  was  recorded  by  a  writer 
named  Chamfort.     Well,  there  are  often  spoken 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  105 

among  us  words  more  remarkable  than  these,  but 
they  want  historians  worthy  of  hearing  them — " 

"  I  have  seen  the  Moravian  brethren,  the  Lollards 
in  Bohemia  and  Hungary,"  said  Genestas;  "they 
are  Christians  who  bear  considerable  resemblance  to 
your  mountaineers.  These  brave  people  endure  the 
evils  of  war  with  an  angelic  patience." 

"  Monsieur,"  replied  the  doctor,  "  simple  manners 
should  be  nearly  similar  in  all  countries.  The  true 
has  only  one  form.  In  point  of  fact,  life  in  the  coun- 
try kills  many  ideas,  but  it  weakens  the  vices  and 
develops  the  virtues.  In  fact,  the  fewer  men  there 
are  to  be  found  gathered  together  upon  one  point,  the 
fewer  crimes  there  are  to  be  met  with,  the  fewer  mis- 
demeanors, evil  sentiments.  The  purity  of  the  air 
counts  for  a  good  deal  in  the  innocence  of  manners." 

The  two  horsemen,  who  had  been  ascending  at  a 
walk  a  stony  road,  finally  arrived  on  the  top  of  the 
plateau  of  which  Benassis  had  spoken.  This  elevated 
plain  surrounds  a  very  lofty  peak,  completely  bare, 
which  overlooks  it,  and  on  which  there  is  no  sign  of 
vegetation;  the  summit  is  gray,  cleft  in  many  places, 
abrupt  and  not  to  be  scaled;  the  fertile  land,  enclosed 
by  rocks,  lies  under  this  peak  and  surrounds  it  in  an 
irregular  shape  to  the  extent  of  about  a  hundred 
arpents.  To  the  south  the  eye  perceives  through  an 
immense  opening  the  French  Maurienne,  Dauphiny, 
the  rocks  of  Savoy,  and  the  distant  mountains  of  the 
Lyonnais.  As  Genestas  turned  to  contemplate  this 
extended  scene,  then  widely  lit  up  by  the  spring 
sunshine,  the  sound  of  mournful  cries  was  heard. 


I06  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  Come,"  said  Benassis  to  him,  "  the  chanting  has 
begun.  Chanting  is  the  name  which  is  given  to  this 
part  of  the  funeral  ceremonies." 

The  officer  then  perceived,  on  the  western  slope 
of  the  peak,  the  buildings  of  a  considerable  farm 
which  formed  a  perfect  square.  The  arched  entrance, 
all  in  granite,  has  a  certain  grandeur,  which  is  height- 
ened by  the  antiquity  of  this  construction,  the  age 
of  the  trees  which  surround  it,  and  the  plants  which 
cling  to  its  angles.  The  main  dwelling  is  at  the  back  of 
the  court,  on  each  side  of  which  are  situated  the  barns, 
the  sheepfolds,  the  stables,  cattle-stalls,  the  wagon- 
houses,  and,  in  the  midst,  the  great  pool  of  water  in 
which  the  manure  is  steeping.  This  courtyard,  the 
aspect  of  which  is  usually  so  animated  in  the  rich 
and  populous  farms,  was  at  this  moment  silent  and 
gloomy.  The  gate  of  the  poultry-yard  was  closed, 
the  animals  were  all  shut  up  in  their  stables,  from 
which  their  various  sounds  could  scarcely  be  heard. 
The  stables,  the  cow-houses,  were  all  carefully  closed. 
The  path  which  led  up  to  the  house  had  been  swept. 
This  perfect  order  where  disorder  habitually  reigned, 
this  lack  of  movement  and  this  silence  in  so  noisy  a 
place,  the  calm  of  the  mountain,  the  shadow  thrown 
by  the  summit  of  the  peak,  all  contributed  to  affect 
the  mind. 

Accustomed  as  he  was  to  strong  impressions, 
Genestas  could  not  repress  a  thrill  when  he  saw  a 
dozen  men  and  women  in  tears,  arranged  outside 
the  door  of  the  great  hall,  who  were  all  crying: 
"The  master  is  dead!"  with  a  frightful  sameness  of 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  107 

intonation  and  twice  repeated,  during  the  interval 
which  he  occupied  in  arriving  at  the  door  of  the 
farmer's  dwelling.  When  this  cry  was  ended,  the 
sound  of  mourning  was  heard  from  the  interior, 
and  the  voice  of  a  woman  came  through  the  win- 
dows. 

"  I  would  not  venture  to  intrude  into  this  sorrow," 
said  Genestas  to  Benassis. 

"  I  always  come  to  visit  the  families  afflicted  by 
death,"  replied  the  physician,  **  partly  to  see  that 
no  accident  caused  by  grief  has  happened,  partly  to 
verify  the  decease;  you  can  accompany  me  without 
any  scruples;  moreover,  the  scene  is  so  imposing, 
and  we  shall  find  so  many  people,  that  you  will  not 
be  noticed." 

As  he  followed  the  doctor,  Genestas  saw,  in  fact, 
that  the  first  room  was  full  of  relatives.  Both  of 
them  passed  through  this  assembly,  and  placed 
themselves  near  the  door  of  a  bedroom  adjoining 
the  great  hall  which  served  as  kitchen  and  general 
gathering-place  for  the  whole  family,  it  should  rather 
be  said,  for  the  colony,  for  the  length  of  the  table 
indicated  the  habitual  residence  of  some  forty  per- 
sons. The  arrival  of  Benassis  interrupted  the  dis- 
course of  a  tall  woman,  simply  clothed,  whose  hair 
was  thin,  and  who  retained  in  her  own  the  hand  of 
the  dead  with  a  touching  movement.  The  latter, 
clothed  in  his  best,  was  extended  stiffly  upon  his 
bed,  the  curtains  of  which  had  been  lifted.  This 
calm  countenance,  which  seemed  to  breathe  of 
Heaven,  and,  above  all,  the  white  hair,  produced  a 


I08  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

dramatic  effect.  On  each  side  of  the  bed  stood 
the  children  and  the  nearest  relatives  of  the  two 
spouses,  each  line  keeping  on  its  own  side,  the  rela- 
tives of  the  wife  on  the  left,  those  of  the  deceased 
on  the  right.  Men  and  women,  they  were  all  kneel- 
ing and  praying,  the  greater  number  were  weeping. 
The  bed  was  surrounded  by  wax  tapers.  The  cure 
of  the  parish  and  his  assistants  had  their  post  in  the 
middle  of  the  chamber,  around  the  open  coffin.  It 
was  a  tragic  spectacle,  to  see  the  head  of  this  family 
in  presence  of  the  coffin  which  was  ready  to  swallow 
him  up  forever. 

"Ah!  my  dear  lord,"  said  the  widow,  pointing  to 
the  doctor,  "  if  the  science  of  the  best  of  men  has 
not  been  able  to  save  thee,  it  was  doubtless  written 
above  that  thou  shouldst  precede  me  into  the  grave! 
Yes,  see  it  cold,  this  hand  which  has  pressed  mine 
with  so  much  friendship!  I  have  lost  forever  my 
dear  companion,  and  our  household  has  lost  its 
precious  head,  for  thou  wast  truly  our  guide.  Alas! 
all  those  who  weep  for  thee  with  me  have  been  well 
acquainted  with  the  light  of  thy  heart  and  all  the 
value  of  thy  character,  but  I,  alone,  knew  how  sweet 
and  patient  thou  wast!  Ah!  my  spouse,  my  hus- 
band, it  is  then  necessary  to  say  adieu  to  thee,  to 
thee,  our  support,  to  thee,  my  good  master!  and  we, 
thy  children,  for  thou  didst  cherish  us  all  equally, 
we  have  all  lost  our  father!" 

The  widow  threw  herself  upon  the  body,  clasped 
it  close,  covered  it  with  tears,  warmed  it  with  kisses; 
and,  during  this  pause,  the  servants  cried: 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  109 

"  The  master  is  dead!" 

"Yes,"  resumed  the  widow,  "he  is  dead,  this 
dear  man,  dearly-beloved,  who  gave  us  our  bread, 
who  planted,  gathered  for  us,  and  watched  over  our 
happiness  whilst  conducting  us  through  life  with  an 
authority  full  of  mildness;  I  can  say  it  now  in  his 
praise,  he  never  gave  me  the  slightest  grief,  he  was 
good,  strong,  patient;  and  when  we  tortured  him  in 
order  to  restore  to  him  his  precious  health,  '  Let  me 
alone,  my  children,  all  is  in  vain!'  this  dear  lamb 
said  to  us  in  the  same  voice  in  which  he  said  to  us  a 
few  days  before:  '  Everything  is  going  well,  my 
friends!'  Yes,  O  God!  a  few  days  sufficed  to 
take  from  us  the  joy  of  this  house  and  to  darken 
our  life  by  closing  the  eyes  of  the  best  of  men,  of 
the  most  upright,  of  the  most  venerated,  of  a  man 
who  had  not  his  equal  for  managing  the  plough,  who 
traversed  fearlessly  our  mountains  night  and  day, 
and  who,  on  his  return,  always  smiled  on  his  wife 
and  his  children.  Ah!  he  was  indeed  our  love,  for 
all  of  us!  When  he  was  absent,  the  hearth  became 
sad,  we  could  not  eat  with  good  appetite.  Oh!  what 
will  it  be  now,  when  our  guardian  angel  is  placed 
under  ground  and  when  we  shall  never  see  him 
more?  Never,  my  friends!  never,  my  good  rela- 
tives! never,  my  children!  Yes,  my  children  have 
lost  their  good  father,  our  relatives  have  lost  their 
good  relation,  my  friends  have  lost  a  good  friend, 
and  I,  I  have  lost  all,  as  the  house  has  lost  its 
master!" 

She  took  the  hand  of  the  dead  man,  kneeled  down 


no  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

to  better  press  her  face  against  it,  and  kissed  it. 
Thie  servants  cried  three  times: 

"  The  master  is  dead!" 

At  this  moment  the  eldest  son  came  up  to  his 
mother  and  said  to  her: 

*'  Mother,  here  are  the  people  from  Saint-Laurent 
coming,  they  will  want  some  wine." 

"  My  son,"  she  replied,  in  a  low  voice,  quitting 
the  solemn  and  lamentable  tone  in  which  she  had 
given  expression  to  her  feelings,  "take  the  keys, 
you  are  the  master  within  this  house;  see  that  they 
find  here  the  welcome  which  your  father  would  have 
given  them,  and  that  nothing  here  seem  changed  to 
them. — That  I  might  see  thee  once  more  to  my 
comfort,  my  honorable  husband!"  she  resumed. 
"But,  alas!  thou  no  longer  feelest  me,  I  can  no 
longer  warm  thee  again!  Ah!  all  that  I  could  wish 
would  be  to  console  thee  still  in  causing  thee  to 
know  that,  so  long  as  I  live,  thou  wilt  dwell  in  this 
heart  which  thou  hast  gladdened,  that  I  shall  be 
happy  in  the  memory  of  my  happiness,  and  that  thy 
dear  remembrance  shall  remain  in  this  chamber. 
Yes,  it  shall  always  be  full  of  thee,  so  long  as  God 
leaves  me  here.  Listen  to  me,  my  dear  husband! 
I  swear  to  keep  thy  bed  as  it  now  is.  I  have  never 
entered  it  without  thee,  let  it  then  remain  empty 
and  cold.  In  losing  thee,  I  have  indeed  lost  all  that 
makes  a  woman, — master,  spouse,  father,  friend, 
companion,  man,  everything!" 

"  The  master  is  dead!  "  cried  the  servants. 

During  this  cry,  which  became  general,  the  widow 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  III 

took  the  scissors  hanging  at  her  girdle  and  cut  off 
her  hair,  which  she  placed  in  her  husband's  hand. 
There  was  a  deep  silence. 

*'  That  action  signifies  that  she  will  not  marry 
again,"  said  Benassis.  "  Many  relatives  expected 
this  resolution  on  her  part." 

**  Take  it,  my  dear  lord!  "  she  said,  with  an  effu- 
sion of  voice  and  of  heart  which  affected  everyone; 
"  guard  in  the  tomb  the  faith  which  I  have  sworn  to 
thee.  We  shall  thus  be  always  united,  and  I  shall 
remain  among  thy  children  for  love  of  that  lineage 
which  rejoiced  thy  soul.  Oh,  that  thou  couldst  hear 
me,  my  husband,  my  only  treasure,  and  learn  that 
thou  wilt  still  make  me  live,  thou  dead,  to  obey  thy 
sacred  wishes,  and  to  honor  thy  memory!" 

Benassis  pressed  the  hand  of  Genestas  as  an 
invitation  to  follow  him,  and  they  went  out.  The 
outer  room  was  full  of  people  who  had  come  from 
another  commune,  also  among  the  mountains;  all  of 
them  were  silent  and  thoughtful,  as  if  the  sorrow 
and  mourning  which  filled  this  house  had  already 
affected  them.  As  Benassis  and  the  commandant 
passed  the  threshold,  they  overheard  these  words, 
said  by  one  of  these  chance  guests  to  the  son  of  the 
deceased: 

"When  did  he  die.?" 

**  Ah!  "  exclaimed  the  eldest  son,  who  was  a  man 
of  twenty-five,  "I  did  not  see  him  die!  He  called 
me,  and  I  was  not  there!" 

His  sobs  interrupted  him,  but  he  continued: 

"The  evening  before,  he  said  to  me:  'Son,  thou 


112  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

wilt  go  to  the  town  to  pay  our  taxes;  the  ceremony 
of  my  funeral  will  cause  it  to  be  forgotten,  and  we 
shall  be  in  arrears,  which  has  never  yet  happened.' 
He  seemed  to  be  better,  and  I  went.  During  my 
absence  he  died  without  my  receiving  his  last  em- 
braces! In  his  last  hour  he  did  not  see  me  by  his 
side,  as  I  had  always  been." 

*'  The  master  is  dead!  "  cried  the  mourners. 

"  Alas!  he  is  dead,  and  I  have  received  neither  his 
last  look  nor  his  last  sigh.  And  how  could  we  have 
thought  of  the  taxes.?  Would  it  not  have  been 
better  to  have  lost  all  our  money  rather  than  to 
leave  the  house.?  Can  all  our  fortune  pay  for  his 
last  adieu.?  No. — Mon  Dieu,  if  thy  father  is  ill, 
never  leave  him,  Jean;  thou  wilt  give  thyself  remorse 
for  the  rest  of  thy  life." 

"  My  friend,"  said  Genestas  to  him,  "  I  have  seen 
thousands  of  men  die  on  battle-fields,  and  Death  did 
not  wait  for  their  children  to  come  to  say  adieu  to 
them;  therefore  console  yourself,  you  are  not  the 
only  one." 

"  A  father,  my  dear  monsieur,"  he  replied,  break- 
ing into  tears,  "  a  father  who  was  such  a  good  man!" 

"  This  funeral  oration,"  said  Benassis,  directing 
Genestas  toward  the  farm  buildings,  "  will  be  con- 
tinued until  the  moment  when  the  body  is  placed  in 
the  coffin,  and  during  all  that  time  the  words  of  this 
weeping  wife  will  increase  in  violence  and  in  forcible 
figures  of  speech.  But,  to  speak  thus  before  this 
imposing  assembly,  it  is  necessary  that  a  wife  should 
have  acquired  the  right  by  a  spotless  life.     If  the 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  II3 

widow  had  the  least  fault  with  which  to  reproach 
herself,  she  would  not  venture  to  say  a  single  word; 
otherwise,  it  would  be  to  condemn  herself;  to  be  at 
once  accuser  and  judge.  Is  not  this  custom,  which 
serves  to  judge  the  dead  and  the  living,  sublime? 
The  mourning  will  not  be  assumed  till  a  week  later, 
in  general  assembly.  During  this  week  the  rela- 
tives will  remain  with  the  children  and  the  widow, 
to  aid  them  in  arranging  their  affairs  and  to  console 
them.  This  gathering  has  a  great  influence  upon 
the  minds;  it  represses  the  evil  passions  by  that 
human  respect  which  takes  possession  of  men  when 
they  are  in  the  presence  of  each  other.  Finally,  on 
the  day  when  mourning  is  put  on,  there  takes  place 
a  solemn  repast,  at  which  all  the  relatives  say  adieu. 
All  this  is  grave,  and  he  who  would  be  found  wanting 
in  the  duties  which  are  imposed  by  the  death  of  the 
head  of  a  family  would  have  no  one  at  his  own 
funeral  chant." 

At  this  moment,  the  doctor,  being  near  the  cattle 
stables,  opened  the  door  and  caused  the  commandant 
to  enter  that  he  might  see  them. 

"Look,  captain,  all  our  stables  have  been  rebuilt 
on  this  model.     Is  it  not  superb.'"* 

Genestas  could  not  but  admire  this  vast  establish- 
ment, in  which  the  cows  and  the  oxen  were  ranged 
in  two  rows,  their  tails  turned  toward  the  lateral 
walls,  and  their  heads  toward  the  middle  of  the 
stable,  into  which  they  entered  by  a  sufficiently  wide 
passage  running  between  them  and  the  wall;  through 
their  open  mangers  could  be  seen  their  horned  heads 
8 


114  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

and  their  brilliant  eyes.  The  master  could  thus 
readily  pass  his  cattle  in  review.  The  fodder, 
placed  overhead  among  the  rafters,  where  a  species 
of  ceiling  had  been  arranged,  fell  into  the  racks 
without  trouble  or  loss.  Between  the  two  rows  of 
mangers  was  a  large  paved  space,  clean  and  well 
aired. 

"During  the  winter,"  said  Benassis,  walking 
about  with  Genestas  in  the  middle  of  the  stable, 
"the  evening  gatherings  and  the  work  take  place 
here  in  common.  Tables  are  arranged,  and  every- 
one thus  warms  himself  economically.  The  sheep- 
folds  are  also  built  upon  this  system.  You  would 
not  believe  how  readily  the  animals  become  accus- 
tomed to  order;  I  have  often  admired  them  when 
they  came  in, — each  one  of  them  knows  her  place, 
and  allows  those  which  should  do  so  to  enter  first. 
You  see,  there  is  plenty  of  room  between  the  animal 
and  the  wall  to  allow  of  their  being  milked  or  cared 
for;  then  the  floor  is  inclined  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  liquids  drain  off  easily." 

"  By  this  stable  you  can  judge  of  all  the  rest," 
said  Genestas;  "without  wishing  to  flatter  you, 
these  are,  indeed,  fine  results." 

"  They  have  not  been  obtained  without  trouble," 
replied  Benassis;  "but,  moreover,  what  cattle!" 

"Certainly,  they  are  magnificent,  and  you  were 
justified  in  praising  them  to  me,"  replied  Genestas. 

"  Now,"  said  the  doctor,  when  he  was  mounted 
and  had  passed  through  the  gate,  "we  will  ride 
across  our  new  clearings  and  the  grain  lands,  the 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  II5 

little  corner  of  my  commune  which  I  have  named 
La  Beauce." 

For  about  an  hour  the  two  horsemen  rode  across 
the  fields,  on  the  fine  cultivation  of  which  the  soldier 
complimented  the  physician;  then  they  came  out 
again  on  the  territory  of  the  town  by  following  the 
slope  of  the  mountain,  sometimes  talking  and  some- 
times silent,  as  the  pace  of  their  horses  permitted 
them  to  converse  or  obliged  them  to  be  silent. 

"  I  promised  you  yesterday,"  said  Benassis  to 
Genestas  as  they  entered  a  little  gorge  by  which 
they  issued  into  the  great  valley,  "  to  show  you  one 
of  the  two  soldiers  who  returned  from  the  army  after 
the  fall  of  Napoleon.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  we  shall 
find  him  at  a  few  steps  from  here,  digging  out  again 
a  sort  of  natural  reservoir  in  which  the  streams  from 
the  mountain  are  gathered,  and  which  the  earth 
brought  down  has  filled  up.  But,  to  render  this  man 
interesting  to  you,  it  is  necessary  to  relate  to  you 
his  life. — His  name  is  Gondrin;  he  was  taken  by 
the  great  conscription  of  1792,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
and  enrolled  in  the  artillery.  As  a  private  soldier 
he  made  the  campaigns  of  Italy  under  Napoleon,  fol- 
lowed him  to  Egypt,  returned  from  the  east  after  the 
Peace  of  Amiens;  then,  regimented  under  the  Em- 
pir'e  in  the  pontoon  builders  of  the  Guard,  he  served 
constantly  in  Germany.  Finally,  the  poor  fellow 
was  sent  to  Russia." 

"We  are  in  some  respects  brothers,"  said  Ge- 
nestas; **  I  have  made  the  same  campaigns.  It 
required  constitutions  of  iron  to  resist  the  caprices 


Il6  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

of  SO  many  different  climates!  Upon  my  word!  the 
good  Lord  must  have  given  some  patent  for  living  to 
those  who  are  still  on  their  pins  after  having  trav- 
ersed Italy,  Egypt,  Germany,  Portugal,  and  Russia!" 
"  So  you  are  now  going  to  see  a  fine  stump  of  a 
man,"  replied  Benassis.  "You  know  all  about  the 
rout,  it  is  useless  torepeat  it  to  you.  My  man  was 
one  of  t\0^^^ntonniers^  of  the  Beresina;  he  aided  in 
constructing  the' bridge  over  which  the  army  passed, 
and,  in  order  to  place  firmly  the  first  trestles,  he 
worked  in  the  water  up  to  his  waist.  General 
Eble,  under  whose  orders  were  the  pontonniers,  could 
find  only  forty-two  of  them  who  were  hairy  enough, 
as  Gondrin  says,  to  undertake  this  work.  Indeed, 
the  general  went  into  the  water  himself,  encouraging 
them,  consoling  them,  promising  to  each  one  a  thou- 
sand francs  of  pension  and  the  cross  of  the  Legion. 
The  first  man  who  entered  the  Beresina  had  his  leg 
carried  off  by  a  large  block  of  ice,  and  the  man  fol- 
lowed his  leg.  But  you  will  comprehend  better  the 
difficulties  of  the  enterprise  by  the  results, — of  the 
forty-two  pontonniers  there  remains  to-day  only 
Gondrin.  Thirty-nine  of  them  perished  at  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Beresina,  and  the  other  two  ended 
miserably  in  the  hospitals  in  Poland.  This  poor 
soldier  did  not  return  from  Wilna  till  1814,  after  the 
restoration  of  the  Bourbons.  General  Eble,  of  whom 
Gondrin  never  speaks  without  tears  in  his  eyes, 
was  dead.  The  pontonnier,  become  deaf,  infirm,  and 
unable  either  to  read  or  write,  found,  therefore, 
neither  support  nor  defender. 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  II7 

"  Having  arrived  at  Paris  by  begging  his  bread,  he 
there  made  application  at  the  ofifices  of  the  minister 
of  war  to  obtain,  not  the  thousand  francs  of  pension 
promised,  not  the  cross  of  the  Legion,  but  simply 
the  pension  from  the  army  to  which  he  was  en- 
titled after  twenty-two  years  of  service,  and  I  do 
not  know  how  many  campaigns:  but  he  received 
neither  back  pay,  nor  travelling  expenses,  nor  pen- 
sion. After  a  year  of  useless  solicitation,  during 
which  he  had  extended  his  hand  to  all  those  whom 
he  had  saved,  the  pontonnier  returned  here  in  de- 
spair, but  resigned.  This  unknown  hero  digs  ditches 
at  ten  sous  a  fathom.  Accustomed  to  working  in 
swamps,  he  has,  as  he  says,  the  specialty  of  tasks 
which  no  other  workman  cares  to  undertake.  By 
cleaning  out  pools,  by  digging  ditches  in  the  inun- 
dated meadows,  he  can  make  about  three  francs  a 
day.  His  deafness  gives  him  a  melancholy  air;  he 
is  naturally  but  little  of  a  talker,  but  he  has  a  good 
heart.  We  are  very  good  friends.  He  dines  with 
me  on  the  days  of  the  battle  of  Austerlitz,  of  the 
f&te  of  the  Emperor,  of  the  disaster  of  Waterloo, 
and  at  dessert  I  present  him  with  a  Napoleon  to  pay 
for  his  wine  for  three  months.  The  feeling  of 
respect  which  I  have  for  this  man  is,  moreover, 
shared  by  the  whole  commune,  which  would  not 
ask  for  anything  better  than  to  take  care  of  him. 
If  he  works,  it  is  through  pride.  In  every  house 
that  he  enters,  everyone  honors  him  as  I  do  and 
asks  him  to  dinner.  I  have  been  able  to  get  him  to 
accept  my  twenty-franc  piece  only  as  a  portrait  of 


Il8  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

the  Emperor.  The  injustice  with  which  he  has  been 
treated  has  deeply  grieved  him,  but  he  regrets  the 
cross  even  more  than  he  desires  his  pension.  One 
thing  only  consoles  him.  When  General  Eble  pre- 
sented the  surviving  pontonniers  to  the  Emperor  after 
the  construction  of  the  bridges,  Napoleon  embraced 
our  poor  Gondrin,  who,  had  it  not  been  for  that 
accolade,  would  have  perhaps  been  dead  before  this; 
he  lives  only  through  this  souvenir  and  in  the  hope  of 
Napoleon's  return;  nothing  can  convince  him  of  his 
death,  and,  persuaded  as  he  is,  that  his  captivity  is 
due  to  the  English,  I  believe  that  he  would  kill 
under  the  slightest  pretext  the  best  of  aldermen 
travelling  for  his  pleasure." 

"  Come  on,  come  on!"  exclaimed  Genestas,  rous- 
ing himself  from  the  close  attention  with  which  he 
had  been  listening  to  the  doctor,  "let  us  go  more 
quickly,  I  wish  to  see  this  man." 

And  the  two  horsemen  put  their  steeds  at  a  rapid 
trot. 

"The  other  soldier,"  resumed  Benassis,  "is  also 
one  of  those  men  of  iron  who  have  rolled  about  in 
the  armies.  He  has  lived,  as  live  all  the  French 
soldiers,  on  balls,  on  blows,  on  victories;  he  has 
suffered  greatly  and  has  never  worn  any  but  epau- 
lettes of  wool.  He  has  a  jovial  character,  he  fanat- 
ically loves  Napoleon,  who  gave  him  the  cross  on  the 
field  of  battle  of  Valontina.  A  true  Dauphinois,  he 
has  always  taken  care  of  his  affairs;  so  he  has  his 
pension  of  retirement  and  his  Legionary  honors.  He 
is  an  infantry  soldier,  named  Goguelat,  who  entered 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  II9 

the  Guard  in  1812.  He  is,  in  some  sort,  Gondrin's 
housekeeper.  Both  of  them  live  in  the  house  of  the 
widow  of  a  hawker,  to  whom  they  hand  their  money; 
the  good  woman  lodges  them,  feeds  them,  clothes 
them,  takes  care  of  them  as  if  they  were  her  chil- 
dren. Goguelat  is  here  the  carrier  of  the  mail.  In 
this  capacity,  he  is  the  bearer  of  news  for  the  can- 
ton, and  the  habit  of  relating  it  has  made  him  the 
orator  of  the  evening  gatherings,  the  official  story- 
teller; therefore  Gondrin  regards  him  as  a  wit,  as  a 
keen  satirist.  When  Goguelat  speaks  of  Napoleon, 
the  pontonnier  seems  to  divine  his  words  from  the 
mere  movement  of  his  lips.  If  they  come  this  even- 
ing to  the  gathering  which  takes  place  in  one  of  my 
barns,  and  we  can  see  them  without  being  seen,  I 
will  enable  you  to  be  a  spectator.  But  here  we  are 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  ditch,  and  I  do  not  see  my 
friend,  the  pontonnier ." 

The  doctor  and  the  commandant  looked  attentively 
around  them;  they  saw  only  the  shovel,  the  pick,  the 
wheelbarrow,  the  military  jacket  of  Gondrin  near  a 
pile  of  black  mud,  but  no  sign  of  the  man  in  the  differ- 
ent rocky  water-courses,  species  of  capricious  hollows, 
almost  all  of  them  shaded  by  small  bushes  and  trees. 

"  He  cannot  be  far  away. — Ghe!  Gondrin!"  cried 
Benassis. 

Genestas  then  perceived  the  smoke  of  a  pipe 
among  the  foliage  of  a  pile  of  rubbish,  and  pointed 
it  out  to  the  doctor,  who  repeated  his  cry.  Presently 
the  old  pontonnier  thrust  out  his  head,  recognized  the 
mayor,  and  descended  by  a  little  path. 


I20  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"Well,  my  ancient,"  cried  Benassis  to  him, 
making  a  species  of  speaking-trumpet  with  the  palm 
of  his  hand,  "  here  is  a  comrade,  an  Egyptian,  who 
has  wished  to  see  you." 

Gondrin  promptly  lifted  his  eyes  to  Genestas  and 
threw  upon  him  that  profound  and  investigating 
glance  which  the  old  soldiers  have  learned  through 
being  obliged  to  measure  their  dangers  promptly. 
When  he  saw  the  red  ribbon  of  the  commandant,  he 
silently  carried  the  back  of  his  hand  to  his  forehead. 

"  If  the  shaven  little  man  were  still  living,"  cried 
the  officer  to  him,  **  thou  wouldst  have  the  cross  and 
a  fine  pension,  for  thou  savedst  the  lives  of  all  those 
who  wore  epaulettes  and  who  found  themselves  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river  on  the  first  of  October, 
1812;  but,  my  friend,"  added  the  commandant,  dis- 
mounting and  taking  his  hand  with  a  sudden  effusion 
of  feeling,  "  I  am  not  the  minister  of  war." 

On  hearing  these  words,  the  old  pontonnier  straight- 
ened himself  on  his  legs  after  having  carefully  shaken 
out  the  ashes  of  his  pipe  and  put  it  in  his  pocket; 
then  he  said,  lowering  his  head: 

"  I  only  did  my  duty,  my  officer,  but  the  others 
have  not  done  theirs  toward  me.  They  asked  me 
for  my  papers!  '  My  papers?'  I  said  to  them,  *  why, 
they  are  the  twenty-ninth  bulletin!'  " 

"We  must  demand  again,  comrade.  With  some 
influence,  it  is  to-day  impossible  that  thou  shouldst 
not  obtain  justice." 

"Justice!"  exclaimed  the  old  pontonnier,  in  a  tone 
which  thrilled  the  doctor  and  the  commandant. 


THE  PONTONNIER  OF  THE  B^RkSINA 


Genestas  then  perceived  the  smoke  of  a  pipe 
among  the  foliage  of  a  pile  of  rubbish,  and  pointed 
it  out  to  the  doctor,  who  repeated  his  cry.  Presently 
the  old  pontonnier  thrust  out  his  head,  recognized 
the  mayor,  and  descended  by  a  little  path. 


>i.^t^^JU.U     tm    ty.      "J    ^     f 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  121 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence,  during  which  the 
two  horsemen  looked  at  this  remnant  of  those  soldiers 
of  bronze  whom  Napoleon  had  culled  out  of  three 
generations.  Gondrin  was  certainly  a  fine  specimen 
of  that  indestructible  mass  which  broke  without 
bending.  This  old  man  was  scarcely  five  feet  tall, 
his  chest  and  his  shoulders  were  prodigiously  de- 
veloped; his  countenance,  tanned,  furrowed  with 
wrinkles,  sunken  but  muscular,  preserved  still  some 
traces  of  martial  character.  Everything  about  him 
betrayed  a  sort  of  roughness, — his  forehead  seemed 
to  be  of  stone;  his  hair,  scarce  and  gray,  fell  in  feeble 
locks  as  if  already  life  were  failing  in  his  fatigued 
head;  his  arms,  covered  with  hair,  as  well  as  his 
chest,  part  of  which  was  exposed  by  the  opening  of 
his  coarse  shirt,  revealed  an  extraordinary  strength. 
And,  finally,  he  was  set  upon  his  almost  crooked  legs 
as  upon  an  unshakable  base, 

"Justice.?"  he  repeated,  "there  will  never  be  any 
of  that  for  such  as  we!  We  have  no  summons- 
servers  to  demand  our  just  dues.  And,  as  it  is 
necessary  to  keep  the  bottle  filled,"  he  continued, 
striking  his  stomach,  "  we  have  not  the  time  to  wait. 
So  that,  seeing  that  the  word  of  those  who  pass  their 
lives  in  warming  themselves  in  official  bureaus  has 
not  the  worth  of  vegetables,  I  have  returned  here  to 
take  my  daily  living  out  of  the  common  funds,"  said 
he,  striking  the  mud  with  his  shovel. 

'*  My  old  comrade,  things  cannot  go  on  in  this 
way!"  said  Genestas.  "  I  owe  my  life  to  you,  and 
I  should  be  an  ingrate  if  I  did  not  give  you  aid!    I 


122  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

remember  passing  over  the  bridges  of  the  Beresina;  I 
know  some  good  fellows  who  also  keep  the  memory 
of  that  always  fresh,  and  they  will  second  me  in 
having  you  recompensed  by  the  country  as  you  de- 
serve." 

"  They  will  call  you  a  Bonapartist!  Do  not  meddle 
with  that,  my  officer.  Moreover,  I  have  fallen  to  the 
rear,  and  I  have  made  my  hole  here  like  a  spent  bul- 
let. Only,  I  did  not  expect,  after  having  traversed 
the  desert  on  camels,  and  after  having  drunk  a  glass 
of  wine  at  the  corner  of  the  fire  in  Moscow,  to  die 
under  the  trees  which  my  father  had  planted,"  he 
said,  as  he  resumed  his  work. 

"Poor  old  fellow,"  said  Genestas.  "In  his 
place,  I  would  do  as  he  does;  we  no  longer  have  our 
father.  Monsieur,"  said  he  to  Benassis,  "the  resig- 
nation of  this  man  makes  me  very  melancholy;  he 
does  not  know  how  much  he  interests  me,  and  he 
will  believe  that  I  am  one  of  those  gilded  beggars 
who  are  insensible  to  the  miseries  of  the  soldier." 

He  returned  abruptly,  seized  the  pontonnier  by  the 
hand,  and  cried  in  his  ear: 

"  By  the  cross  which  I  wear,  and  which  formerly 
signified  honor,  I  swear  to  do  all  that  is  humanly 
possible  to  undertake  to  obtain  a  pension  for  you, 
though  I  have  to  swallow  ten  refusals  from  the 
minister,  to  solicit  the  king,  the  dauphin,  and  the 
whole  shop!" 

When  he  heard  these  words,  the  old  Gondrin 
shivered,  looked  at  Genestas,  and  said  to  him: 

"You  have,  then,  been  a  private  soldier.?" 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 23 

The  commandant  nodded  his  head.  At  this  sign 
the  pontonnier  wiped  his  hand,  took  that  of  Genestas, 
grasped  it  with  a  heartfelt  pressure,  and  said  to 
him: 

"  My  general,  when  I  went  into  the  water  over 
there,  I  gave  to  the  army  my  life  as  alms;  well, 
there  has  been  gain,  since  I  am  still  on  my  spurs. 
Wait,  now,  would  you  like  to  know  all  about  it? 
Well,  since  the  other  has  been  turned  off,  I  no  longer 
have  any  taste  for  anything.  Finally,  they  have 
assigned  me  this  place,"  he  added,  gayly,  indicating 
the  earth,  "  twenty  thousand  francs  to  take,  and  I 
am  paying  myself  in  detail,  as  that  other  said." 

"Come,  comrade,"  said  Genestas,  affected  by 
the  sublimity  of  this  pardon,  **  you  will  have  here 
at  least  the  only  thing  which  you  cannot  prevent  me 
from  giving  you." 

The  commandant  struck  his  heart,  looked  at  the 
pontonnier  a  moment,  remounted  his  horse,  and  con- 
tinued his  ride  by  the  side  of  Benassis. 

"  It  is  such  administrative  cruelties  as  this  which 
foment  the  war  of  the  poor  against  the  rich,"  said 
the  doctor.  "  Those  to  whom  power  is  temporarily 
confided  have  never  thought  seriously  of  the  neces- 
sary results  of  an  injustice  committed  against  a  man 
of  the  people.  A  poor  man,  obliged  to  gain  his  daily 
bread,  does  not  contest  for  long,  it  is  true;  but  he 
speaks,  and  finds  an  echo  in  all  suffering  hearts.  A 
single  iniquity  is  thus  multiplied  by  the  number  of 
those  who  feel  themselves  injured  by  it.  This 
leaven  ferments.     It  is  nothing  as  yet;  there  results 


124  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

from  it  a  greater  evil.  These  injustices  develop  in 
the  people  a  silent  hatred  for  social  superiority.  The 
bourgeois  becomes  and  remains  the  enemy  of  the 
poor,  who  put  him  outside  the  law,  deceive  him  and 
rob  him.  For  the  poor,  robbery  is  neither  a  misde- 
meanor nor  a  crime,  it  is  a  vengeance.  If,  when  it 
is  a  question  of  rendering  justice  to  the  feeble,  an 
administrator  illtreats  them  and  filches  from  them 
their  acquired  rights,  how  can  we  exact  from  the 
unfortunate  without  bread  resignation  under  their 
trials,  and  respect  for  property? — I  shudder  in  think- 
ing that  some  clerk  in  a  bureau,  whose  function  it  is 
to  dust  off  the  documents,  has  received  the  thousand 
francs  of  pension  promised  to  Gondrin.  And  certain 
individuals,  who  have  never  measured  the  excess  of 
sufferings,  accuse  the  popular  vengeances  of  excess! 
But  on  the  day  when  the  government  causes  more 
individual  unhappiness  than  prosperity,  its  over- 
throw depends  only  upon  a  chance;  in  overturning 
it,  the  people  settle  their  accounts  in  their  own 
manner.  A  statesman  should  always  depict  to  him- 
self the  poor  at  the  feet  of  Justice;  she  was  invented 
only  for  them!" 

When  they  arrived  in  the  precincts  of  the  town, 
Benassis  saw  two  persons  walking  in  the  road,  and 
said  to  the  commandant,  who  had  been  riding  for 
some  time  in  deep  thought: 

"  You  have  seen  the  resigned  poverty  of  a  veteran 
of  the  army;  now  you  will  see  that  of  an  old  agricultu- 
rist. There  is  a  man  who,  during  the  whole  of  his  life, 
has  dug,  cultivated,  sown,  and  harvested  for  others." 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  I25 

Genestas  then  perceived  a  poor  old  man  who  was 
walking  with  an  old  woman.  The  man  appeared  to 
be  suffering  from  some  sciatic  trouble,  and  hobbled 
along  painfully,  his  feet  in  wretched  sabots.  He 
carried  on  his  shoulder  a  wallet,  in  the  pouch  of 
which  shook  about  some  instruments,  the  handles  of 
which,  blackened  by  long  usage  and  by  sweat,  pro- 
duced a  slight  rattling;  the  pouch  behind  contained 
his  bread,  some  raw  onions,  and  some  nuts.  His 
legs  seemed  to  be  warped.  His  back,  bowed  by  the 
habits  of  labor,  obliged  him  to  walk  stooping,  so 
that,  to  preserve  his  equilibrium,  he  leaned  upon  a 
long  stick.  His  hair,  white  as  snow,  fell  from  under 
a  shabby  hat,  reddened  by  exposure  to  the  weather, 
and  sewed  up  with  white  thread.  His  garments,  of 
coarse  stuff,  pieced  in  a  hundred  places,  presented 
various  contrasts  of  color.  It  was  a  sort  of  human 
ruin,  in  which  were  lacking  none  of  the  characteristics 
that  render  ruins  so  affecting.  His  wife,  a  little 
straighter  than  he,  but  likewise  covered  with  rags, 
wearing  a  coarse  cap,  carried  on  her  back  a  stone- 
ware vase,  round  and  flat,  held  by  a  cord  passed 
through  the  handles.  They  raised  their  heads 
when  they  heard  the  sounds  of  the  horses'  hoofs, 
recognized  Benassis,  and  stopped.  These  two  old 
people,  the  one  disabled  by  hard  labor,  the  other, 
his  faithful  companion,  equally  decrepit,  displayed, 
both  of  them,  countenances  in  which  the  features 
were  effaced  by  the  wrinkles;  the  skin,  blackened 
by  the  sun,  and  hardened  by  the  intemperance  of 
the  weather,  was  pitiful  to  see.     If  the  history  of 


126  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

their  life  had  not  been  engraved  on  their  physiog- 
nomies, their  attitudes  would  have  revealed  it.  Both 
of  them  had  toiled  unceasingly,  and  ceaselessly  suf- 
fered together,  having  many  evils  and  very  few 
pleasures  to  share;  they  appeared  to  have  become 
accustomed  to  their  ill-fortune,  as  the  prisoner  ha- 
bituates himself  to  his  jail;  in  them,  everything 
was  simplicity.  Their  faces  did  not  want  for  a  sort 
of  cheerful  frankness.  On  examining  them,  their 
monotonous  life,  the  lot  of  so  many  poor  creatures, 
seemed  to  be  almost  enviable.  There  were,  indeed, 
to  be  seen  in  them  traces  of  sorrow,  but  none  of 
gloom  and  discontent. 

"  Well,  my  worthy  Father  Moreau,  you  are  then 
absolutely  determined  to  work  all  the  time?" 

"  Yes,  Monsieur  Benassis.  I  will  clear  off  for  you 
a  brush-land  or  two  yet  before  I  burst  up,"  replied 
the  old  man,  cheerfully,  his  little  black  eyas  lighting 
up. 

"  Is  it  wine  that  your  wife  is  carrying.''  If  you 
will  not  take  some  rest,  at  least  it  is  necessary  to 
drink  some  wine." 

"  To  rest  myself!  That  bores  me.  When  I  am  in 
the  sunlight,  occupied  in  clearing  the  land,  the  sun 
and  the  air  reanimate  me.  As  to  the  wine,  yes, 
monsieur,  that  is  wine,  and  I  know  very  well  that  it 
was  you  who  caused  us  to  get  it  for  almost  nothing 
from  monsieur  the  mayor  of  Courteil.  Ah!  you 
may  be  as  sly  as  you  please,  you  are  recognized  all 
the  same." 

"Well,  then,  good-day,  mother.     Doubtless  you 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 27 

are  going  to-day  to  the  piece  of  ground  of  Champ- 
ferlu?" 

"Yes,  monsieur,  it  was  commenced  yesterday 
evening." 

"  Good  luck  to  you!"  said  Benassis.  "  You  should 
be  well  content  sometimes  on  seeing  that  mountain, 
which  you  have  cleared  off  almost  all  yourselves." 

"Dame!  yes,  monsieur,"  replied  the  old  woman, 
**  it  is  our  work!  We  have  well  earned  the  right  to 
eat  bread." 

"You  see,"  said  Benassis  to  Genestas,  "labor, 
the  earth  to  cultivate,  that  is  the  capital  of  the  poor. 
That  goodman  would  think  himself  dishonored  if  he 
went  to  the  hospital  or  if  he  begged;  he  wishes  to 
die,  pick-axe  in  hand,  in  the  midst  of  the  fields  in  the 
sunlight.  Upon  my  word,  he  has  a  proud  courage. 
Through  constant  labor,  labor  has  become  his  life; 
but,  also,  he  does  not  fear  death!  he  is  profoundly 
philosophical  without  knowing  it.  This  old  Father 
Moreau  gave  me  the  idea  of  founding  in  this  canton 
a  hospital  for  the  tillers,  for  the  workmen,  in  short, 
for  the  country  people  who,  after  having  worked  all 
their  lives,  arrive  at  an  honorable  and  poor  old  age. 
Monsieur,  I  did  not  reckon  upon  the  fortune  which  I 
have  made,  and  which  is  useless  to  me  personally. 
But  few  things  are  required  for  the  man  fallen  from 
the  summit  of  his  hopes.  The  life  of  the  idle  is  the 
only  one  that  costs  dearly;  perhaps  it  is  even  a  social 
theft  to  consume  without  producing  anything.  On 
learning  of  the  discussions  which  were  raised  at 
the  time  of  his  fall  on  the  subject  of  his  pension, 


128  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

Napoleon  said  that  he  only  needed  a  horse  and  a 
crown  a  day. 

"When  I  came  here,  I  renounced  money.  Since, 
I  have  recognized  that  money  represents  faculties, 
and  becomes  necessary  in  order  to  do  good.  I  have, 
then,  in  my  will,  left  my  house  to  found  a  hospital  in 
which  the  unfortunate  aged  without  an  asylum,  and 
who  may  be  less  proud  than  Moreau,  may  pass  their 
last  days.  Then  a  certain  portion  of  the  nine  thou- 
sand francs  of  income  which  my  lands  and  my  mill 
bring  me  in  will  be  set  aside  to  give  aid  at  home  in 
the  too  severe  winters  to  those  who  are  truly  needy. 
This  establishment  will  be  under  the  surveillance  of 
the  municipal  council,  to  which  the  cure  will  be  added 
as  president.  In  this  manner,  the  fortune  which 
chance  has  caused  me  to  find  in  this  canton  will  re- 
main here.  The  regulations  of  this  institution  are  all 
drawn  up  in  my  will;  it  would  be  wearisome  to  repeat 
them  to  you,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  tell  you  that  I  have 
foreseen  everything.  I  have  even  created  a  reserve 
fund,  which  should  permit  the  commune  some  day  to 
furnish  several  scholarships  for  those  young  persons 
who  might  give  evidences  of  talent  for  the  arts  or  the 
sciences.  Thus,  even  after  my  death,  my  work  of 
civilization  will  continue.  You  see.  Captain  Bluteau, 
when  one  has  commenced  a  task,  there  is  something 
in  us  which  urges  us  on  not  to  leave  it  imperfect.  This 
need  of  order  and  of  perfection  is  one  of  the  most 
evident  indications  of  a  destiny  yet  to  come.  But  at 
present  let  us  go  more  quickly,  I  must  finish  my 
rounds,  and  I  have  still  five  or  six  patients  to  see." 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  129 

After  having  trotted  some  time  in  silence,  Benassis 
said  to  his  companion,  laughing: 

"Ah,  there!  Captain  Bluteau,  you  make  me  chatter 
like  a  jay,  and  you  tell  me  nothing  of  your  life,  which 
must  have  been  remarkable.  A  soldier  of  your  age 
has  seen  too  many  things  not  to  have  more  than  one 
adventure  to  relate?" 

"  But,"  replied  Genestas,  "  my  life  is  the  life  of 
the  army.  All  military  figures  resemble  each  other. 
Never  having  commanded,  having  always  remained 
in  the  ranks  to  receive  or  give  sabre-cuts,  I  have  done 
just  like  the  others.  I  went  where  Napoleon  con- 
ducted us,  and  I  found  myself  in  line  in  all  the 
battles  in  which  the  Imperial  Guard  was  engaged. 
These  are  well-known  events.  To  take  care  of  his 
horses,  to  suffer  sometimes  from  hunger  and  thirst, 
to  fight  when  it  is  necessary,  there  is  the  whole  life 
of  a  soldier.  Is  not  that  as  simple  as  good-day .!* 
There  are  battles  which,  for  us,  are  entirely  summed 
up  in  a  horse  unshod,  which  has  left  us  in  an  awk- 
ward position.  In  short,  I  have  seen  so  many  coun- 
tries that  I  have  become  accustomed  to  seeing  them, 
and  I  have  seen  so  many  dead  men  that  I  have  ended 
by  counting  my  own  life  as  nothing." 

"However,  you  must  have  been  personally  in 
danger  during  certain  moments,  and  these  particular 
individual  dangers  would  be  interesting,  related  by 
you.?" 

"  Perhaps,"  replied  the  commandant. 

"Well,  tell  me  what  has  most  moved  you.  Do 
not  be  afraid;  go  ahead!  I  will  not  believe  that  you 
9 


I30  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

are  wanting  in  modesty  even  when  you  relate  to  me 
some  trait  of  heroism.  When  a  man  is  quite  certain 
of  being  comprehended  by  those  in  whom  he  confides, 
should  he  not  experience  a  sort  of  pleasure  in  say- 
ing: M  did  that'?" 

"  Well,  1  will  relate  to  you  an  incident  that  some- 
times causes  me  remorse.  During  the  fifteen  years 
in  which  we  fought,  it  did  not  happen  to  me  to  kill  a 
man  in  a  single  case,  excepting  in  the  way  of  legiti- 
mate defence.  We  are  in  line,  we  charge;  if  we  do 
not  overthrow  those  who  are  in  front  of  us,  they  will 
not  ask  our  permission  to  bleed  us, — therefore,  it  is 
necessary  to  kill  in  order  not  to  be  demolished,  the 
conscience  is  tranquil.  But,  my  dear  monsieur,  it 
happened  to  me  to  break  the  back  of  a  comrade 
under  peculiar  circumstances.  On  reflection,  the 
thing  has  caused  me  pain,  and  the  grimace  of  that 
man  sometimes  returns  to  me.  You  shall  judge. — 
It  was  during  the  retreat  from  Moscow.  We  had 
more  the  appearance  of  being  a  herd  of  harassed 
cattle  than  of  being  the  grand  army.  Farewell  to 
discipline  and  to  the  flags,  each  one  was  his  own 
master,  and  the  Emperor,  it  may  be  said,  learned 
there  where  his  power  ended. 

"  On  arriving  at  Studzianka,  a  little  village  above 
the  Beresina,  we  found  barns,  cabins  to  demolish, 
potatoes  buried,  and  beets.  For  some  time  past  we 
had  encountered  neither  houses  nor  eatables, — so 
the  army  junketed.  The  first  comers,  as  you  may 
suppose,  had  eaten  everything.  I  arrived  one  of 
the  last.     Happily  for  me,  I  was  hungry  only  for 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  131 

sleep.  I  perceive  a  barn,  I  enter  it,  I  see  some 
twenty  generals,  superior  officers,  all  of  them  men, 
without  flattering  them,  of  great  merit, — Junot,  Nar- 
bonne,  the  aide-de-camp  of  the  Emperor,  in  short,  the 
great  heads  of  the  army.  There  were  also  simple 
soldiers  who  would  not  have  given  their  bed  of  straw 
to  a  marshal  of  France.  Some  were  sleeping  stand- 
ing, leaning  against  the  wall  for  want  of  a  place, 
others  were  stretched  on  the  ground,  and  all  so 
closely  wedged  together  in  order  to  keep  warm  that 
I  sought  vainly  for  a  corner  in  which  to  place  myself. 
You  might  see  me  walking  on  this  flooring  of  men, — 
some  of  them  growled,  others  said  nothing,  but  no 
one  moved.  No  one  would  have  moved  to  avoid 
a  cannon-ball,  but  you  were  not  obliged  there  to 
follow  the  maxims  of  a  puerile  and  respectable 
civility. 

"  Finally,  I  perceived  at  the  back  of  the  barn  a 
species  of  interior  roof  on  which  no  one  had  had  the 
idea,  or  perhaps  the  strength,  to  climb.  I  mount  on 
it,  I  arrange  myself,  and  when  I  am  stretched  out 
at  length  I  look  down  at  these  men  laid  out  like 
calves.  This  sorrowful  spectacle  almost  made  me 
laugh.  Some  were  eating  frozen  carrots,  giving  ex- 
pression to  a  sort  of  animal  pleasure,  and  generals 
wrapped  in  old  shawls  snored  like  thunder.  A 
flaming  fir  bough  lit  up  the  barn;  it  might  have 
set  fire  to  it,  no  one  would  have  risen  to  extinguish 
it.  I  am  lying  on  my  back,  and,  before  going  to 
sleep,  I  naturally  raise  my  eyes  in  the  air, — I  then 
see  the  main  beam  on  which  the  roof  rested  and 


132  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

which  supported  the  rafters  make  a  slight  move- 
ment from  east  to  west.  This  cursed  beam  danced 
very  prettily.  'Messieurs,'  I  said  to  them,  'there 
is  a  comrade  outside  who  wishes  to  warm  himself  at 
our  expense.'  The  beam  was  on  the  point  of  falling. 
*  Messieurs,  messieurs,  we  are  about  to  be  killed, 
look  at  the  beam!'  I  cried  loudly  enough  to  awaken 
my  bed-fellows.  Monsieur,  they  indeed  looked  at 
the  beam,  but  those  who  were  sleeping  went  to 
sleep  again;  and  those  who  were  eating  did  not  even 
reply  to  me. 

"  Seeing  this,  it  was  necessary  for  me  to  leave 
my  place,  at  the  risk  of  having  it  taken,  for  it  was  a 
question  of  saving  this  heap  of  glories.  I  accord- 
ingly go  out,  I  go  around  the  barn,  and  I  perceive  a 
great  devil  of  a  Wiirtemberger  who  was  pulling  at 
the  beam  with  a  certain  enthusiasm.  'Aho!  aho!' 
I  say  to  him,  making  him  understand  that  he  must 
cease  his  labors.  'Gehe  mir  aus  dem  Gesicht,  oder  ich 
schlage  dich  todt!' — Get  out  of  my  sight,  or  I  will 
strike  you  dead! — he  cried.  'Ah,  well,  yes!  Que 
mire  aous  dem  gtiesit,' — imitation  of  the  German, — I 
replied  to  him,  '  that  is  not  the  question!'  I  take  his 
musket  which  he  had  left  on  the  ground,  I  break 
his  back,  1  re-enter  the  barn  and  go  to  sleep.  That 
is  the  story." 

"  But  that  was  a  case  of  legitimate  defence  ap- 
plied against  one  man  for  the  sake  of  many  others; 
you  have,  then,  nothing  with  which  to  reproach 
yourself,"  said  Benassis. 

"The  others,"  resumed   Genestas,  "thought  I 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 33 

had  some  crotchet  in  my  head;  but,  crotchet  or  not, 
many  of  those  individuals  are  now  living  at  their 
ease  in  fine  mansions  without  having  their  hearts 
oppressed  by  gratitude." 

"Would  you  not  have  done  good,  then,  except  to 
receive  that  exorbitant  interest  which  is  called  grati- 
tude?" said  Benassis,  laughing.  "That would  be  to 
take  usury." 

"Ah!  I  know  very  well,"  replied  Genestas, 
"that  the  merit  of  a  good  action  disappears  at  the 
slightest  interest  that  you  derive  from  it;  to  relate 
it,  that  is  to  set  up  for  yourself  an  income  of  self- 
love  which  is  worth  quite  as  much  as  gratitude. 
However,  if  the  honest  man  is  always  silent,  the 
one  obliged  scarcely  ever  speaks  of  the  benefit.  In 
your  system,  the  people  have  need  of  examples; 
now,  in  this  general  silence,  where,  then,  will  they 
find  them.?  One  thing  more!  If  our  poor  pontonnier, 
who  saved  the  French  army  and  who  has  never 
found  himself  in  a  position  to  gabble  about  it  profit- 
ably, had  not  preserved  the  use  of  his  arms,  would 
his  conscience  have  given  him  his  daily  bread.? — 
Answer  that,  philosopher.?" 

"Perhaps  there  is  nothing  absolute  in  morals," 
replied  Benassis;  "  but  this  idea  is  dangerous,  it 
allows  egotism  to  interpret  cases  of  conscience  to 
the  profit  of  personal  interest.  Listen,  captain, — ^the 
man  who  obeys  strictly  the  principles  of  morality,  is 
he  not  greater  than  he  who  departs  from  them,  even 
'  through  necessity?  Our  pontonnier,  entirely  crippled 
and  dying  with  hunger,  would  he  not  be  sublime  in 


134  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

the  very  same  qualities  that  make  Homer  sublime? 
Human  life  is  doubtless  a  last  trial  for  virtue  as  for 
genius,  both  of  them  claimed  by  a  better  world. 
Virtue  and  genius  seem  to  me  the  two  finest  forms 
of  that  complete  and  constant  devotion  which  Jesus 
Christ  came  to  teach  to  men.  Genius  remains  poor 
while  enlightening  the  world,  virtue  keeps  silence  in 
sacrificing  herself  for  the  general  good." 

"  Agreed,  monsieur,"  said  Genestas,  "  but  the 
earth  is  inhabited  by  men  and  not  by  angels;  we 
are  not  perfect." 

"You  are  right,"  replied  Benassis.  "For  my 
part,  I  have  greatly  abused  the  faculty  of  committing 
faults.  But  should  we  not  tend  toward  perfection? 
Is  not  virtue  a  beautiful  ideal  for  the  soul  which  it  is 
necessary  to  contemplate  ceaselessly  as  a  celestial 
model?" 

"  Amen!"  said  the  soldier.  "  We  will  grant  it  to 
you,  the  virtuous  man  is  a  beautiful  object;  but 
admit  also  that  virtue  is  a  divinity  which  can  permit 
a  little  bit  of  conversation,  in  all  good,  all  honor." 

"Ah!  monsieur,"  said  the  physician,  smiling 
with  a  sort  of  bitter  melancholy,  "you  have  the 
indulgence  of  those  who  live  in  peace  with  them- 
selves, whilst  I  am  severe  like  a  man  who  sees  a 
great  many  stains  to  efface  in  his  life — " 

The  two  horsemen  had  arrived  at  a  thatched 
cottage  situated  on  the  edge  of  the  torrent.  The 
doctor  entered  it.  Genestas  remained  on  the  thresh- 
old of  the  door,  regarding  alternately  the  spectacle 
offered  by  this  fresh  landscape  and  the  interior  of  the 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 35 

cottage,  in  which  was  a  man  in  bed.  After  having 
examined  his  patient,  Benassis  suddenly  exclaimed: 

"  There  is  no  use  in  my  coming  here,  my  good 
woman,  if  you  do  not  do  what  I  order!  You  have 
given  some  bread  to  your  husband;  you  wish,  then,  to 
kill  him?  Sac-d-papier !  if  you  give  him  henceforth 
anything  but  his  eau  de  chiendent, — triticum  repens, — 
I  will  not  set  foot  here  again,  and  you  can  go  and 
look  for  a  doctor  wherever  you  like." 

"  But,  my  dear  Monsieur  Benassis,  the  poor  old 
man  was  sick  with  hunger,  and  when  a  man  has  not 
put  anything  in  his  stomach  for  two  weeks — " 

"  Now,  then,  will  you  listen  to  me.?  If  you  allow 
your  man  to  eat  a  single  mouthful  of  bread  before  I 
permit  him  to  take  nourishment,  you  will  kill  him, 
do  you  hear?" 

"  He  shall  not  have  anything,  my  dear  monsieur — 
Is  he  better?"  said  she,  following  the  doctor. 

"  Why,  no;  you  have  made  him  worse  by  giving 
him  something  to  eat.  I  cannot,  then,  persuade  you, 
obstinate  that  you  are,  not  to  give  nourishment  to 
people  who  should  diet?  The  peasants  are  incor- 
rigibles!"  added  Benassis,  turning  to  the  ofificer. 
"When  a  sick  man  has  eaten  nothing  for  a  few 
days,  they  think  he  is  dead,  and  stuff  him  with  soup 
or  with  wine.  Here  is  a  wretched  woman  who  has 
all  but  killed  her  husband." 

"  Killed  my  husband  with  a  poor  little  bit  of  bread 
soaked  in  wine!" 

"Certainly,  my  good  woman.  I  am  surprised  to 
find  him  still  alive  after  the  bread  soaked  in  wine 


136  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

you  gave  him.  Do  not  forget  to  do  exactly  what  I 
have  said  to  you." 

"  Oh!  my  dear  monsieur,  I  would  rather  die  my- 
self than  fail  to  do  so." 

"  Well,  we  will  see  about  that.  To-morrow  even- 
ing I  will  return  to  bleed  him.  We  will  follow  the 
torrent  on  foot,"  said  Benassis  to  Genestas;  "from 
this  point  to  the  house  where  I  must  go  there  is  no 
road  for  the  horses.  This  man's  little  boy  will 
watch  our  animals.  Admire  our  pretty  valley  a 
little!"  he  resumed;  "is  it  not  an  English  garden? 
We  are  going  to  the  house  of  a  workman,  inconsolable 
for  the  death  of  one  of  his  children.  His  eldest,  still 
young,  during  the  last  harvest  wished  to  do  a  man's 
work,  the  poor  child  exceeded  his  strength,  he  died  of 
weakness  at  the  end  of  the  autumn.  This  is  the  first 
time  that  I  have  encountered  the  paternal  sentiment 
so  strongly  developed.  Usually,  the  peasants  regret 
in  the  death  of  their  children  the  loss  of  a  useful  thing 
which  constitutes  a  part  of  their  fortune;  the  regrets 
are  in  proportion  to  their  age.  When  an  adult,  the 
child  becomes  a  capital  for  its  father.  But  this  poor 
man  loved  his  son  truly.  *  Nothing  consoles  me  for 
this  loss!'  he  said  to  me  one  day  when  I  saw  him  in 
a  meadow,  standing  motionless,  forgetting  his  work, 
leaning  on  his  scythe,  holding  in  his  hand  his  whet- 
stone, which  he  had  taken  to  use,  and  which  he  was 
not  using.  He  has  not  spoken  to  me  since  of  his 
grief,  but  he  has  become  taciturn  and  suffering. 
To-day,  one  of  his  little  girls  is  sick — " 

While  still  talking,  Benassis  and  his  guest  arrived 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 37 

at  a  little  house  situated  on  the  road  to  a  bark- 
mill.  There,  under  a  willow,  they  perceived  a  man 
of  about  forty  years  of  age,  standing  and  eating 
bread  rubbed  with  garlic. 

"Well,  Gasnier,  is  the  little  one  better?" 

"  I  do  not  know,  monsieur,"  he  replied,  with  a 
sombre  air,  "you  are  going  to  see  her;  my  wife  is 
with  her.  Notwithstanding  all  your  cares,  I  am 
afraid  that  Death  has  entered  my  house  to  carry 
off  everything  from  me." 

"Death  does  not  take  up  his  lodging  in  any- 
one's house,  Gasnier;  he  has  not  the  time.  Do  not 
lose  courage." 

Benassis  entered  the  house,  followed  by  the 
father.  A  half-hour  later  he  came  out,  accompanied 
by  the  mother,  to  whom  he  said: 

"  Do  not  be  anxious,  do  that  which  I  have  recom- 
mended you  to  do,  she  is  saved.  If  all  this  bores 
you,"  said  the  doctor  to  the  soldier,  as  they  re- 
mounted, "  I  can  put  you  on  the  road  to  the  town, 
and  you  can  return  there." 

"No,  upon  my  word,  I  am  not  bored  in  the 
least." 

"But  you  will  see  everywhere  thatched  cottages 
which  resemble  each  other;  nothing  is,  apparently, 
more  monotonous  than  the  country." 

"  Let  us  go  on,"  said  the  soldier. 

For  several  hours  they  thus  traversed  the  country, 
crossing  the  whole  width  of  the  canton,  and,  toward 
evening,  they  returned  to  the  neighborhood  of  the 
town. 


138  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  I  must  go  down  there,"  said  the  physician  to 
Genestas,  indicating  a  locality  where  grew  several 
elms.  "  These  trees  are,  perhaps,  two  hundred 
years  old,"  he  added.  "  There  lives  that  woman  for 
whom  a  lad  came  to  seek  me  yesterday  just  at  din- 
ner-time, telling  me  that  she  had  become  quite  white. ' ' 

"  Was  it  dangerous?" 

"No,"  said  Benassis,  "an  effect  of  pregnancy. 
This  woman  is  in  her  last  month.  It  frequently  hap- 
pens at  this  period  that  women  have  spasms.  But  it 
is  always  necessary,  as  a  precaution,  that  I  should  go 
to  see  if  anything  alarming  has  happened;  I  will  de- 
liver this  woman  myself.  Moreover,  1  will  show  you 
one  of  our  new  industries,  a  brick-field.  The  road  is 
good,  will  you  gallop?" 

"Will  your  horse  follow  me?"  said  Genestas, 
saying  to  his  own:  "Up,  Neptune!" 

In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  the  officer  was  carried 
off  a  hundred  feet,  and  disappeared  in  a  whirlwind  of 
dust;  but,  notwithstanding  the  swiftness  of  his  horse, 
he  constantly  heard  the  doctor  at  his  side.  Benassis 
said  a  word  to  his  own  animal,  and  outstripped  the 
commandant,  who  rejoined  him  only  at  the  brick- 
works, at  the  moment  when  the  doctor  was  tran- 
quilly tying  his  horse  to  the  turnstile  of  a  brushwood 
fence. 

"  May  the  devil  fly  away  with  you!"  exclaimed 
Genestas,  looking  at  the  horse  which  was  neither 
blowing  nor  sweating.  "  What  kind  of  a  beast  have 
you  there,  anyhow?" 

"Ah!"  replied  the  doctor,  laughing,  "  you  took  him 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 39 

for  a  screw.  At  this  moment,  the  story  of  this  fine 
animal  would  take  too  much  of  our  time;  let  it  suffice 
you  to  know  that  Roustan  is  a  true  Barbary  horse 
from  the  Atlas  Mountains.  A  Barbary  horse  is 
worth  an  Arab  horse.  Mine  ascends  the  mountains 
at  full  gallop  without  turning  a  hair,  and  trots  sure- 
footed along  the  edge  of  the  precipices.  It  was  a  gift 
well-earned,  moreover.  A  father  thought  to  pay  me 
thus  for  the  life  of  his  daughter,  one  of  the  richest 
heiresses  of  Europe,  whom  I  found  dying  on  the  road 
to  Savoy.  If  I  should  tell  you  how  I  cured  this  young 
woman,  you  would  take  me  for  a  charlatan.  Ah!  I 
hear  the  bells  of  the  horses  and  the  noise  of  a  cart  in 
the  by-road, — let  us  see  if,  by  chance,  this  shall  be 
Vigneau  himself,  and  look  well  at  this  man!" 

Presently  the  officer  perceived  four  enormous 
horses  harnessed  like  those  owned  by  the  most  well- 
to-do  husbandmen  of  La  Brie.  The  woollen  ear- 
knots,  the  bells,  the  coats,  had  a  sort  of  prosperous 
tidiness  about  them.  In  this  enormous  cart,  painted 
blue,  was  a  great  chubby -faced  youth,  browned  by 
the  sun,  who  was  whistling  while  holding  his  whip 
like  a  musket  at  the  carry-arms. 

"  No,  it  is  only  the  carter,"  said  Benassis.  "Ad- 
mire for  a  moment  how  the  industrial  prosperity  of 
the  master  is  reflected  in  everything,  even  in  the 
equipment  of  this  driver.  Is  it  not  the  indication  of  a 
commercial  intelligence  sufficiently  rare  in  the  depths 
of  the  country.?" 

"  Yes,  yes;  all  that  seems  to  be  very  well  decked 
out,"  replied  the  soldier. 


I40  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  Well,  Vigneau  owns  two  similar  turn-outs.  In 
addition,  he  has  his  little  riding-pony,  on  which  he 
goes  about  his  affairs,  for  his  business  now  extends 
to  a  great  distance;  and,  four  years  ago,  this  man 
possessed  nothing!  I  am  mistaken,  he  had  debts — 
But  let  us  enter." 

"  My  lad,"  said  Benassis  to  the  carter,  "  Madame 
Vigneau  is  at  home?" 

"  Monsieur,  she  is  in  the  garden;  I  have  just  seen 
her  over  the  hedge;  I  will  go  to  notify  her  of  your 
arrival." 

Genestas  followed  Benassis,  who  made  him  trav- 
erse a  large  enclosure  surrounded  by  hedges.  In  a 
corner  was  piled  up  the  white  earth  and  the  clay  re- 
quired for  the  manufacture  of  tiles  and  white  bricks; 
in  another  corner  were  heaped  up  the  fagots  of  wood 
and  the  heather  for  heating  the  furnace;  farther 
on,  on  a  space  surrounded  by  hurdle-work,  several 
workmen  were  breaking  up  white  stones  or  manipu- 
lating the  brick  clay;  opposite  the  entrance,  under 
the  great  elms,  was  the  manufactory  of  round  and 
square  tiles,  a  great  hall  of  verdure  terminating  in 
the  roofs  of  the  drying-sheds,  near  to  which  might 
be  seen  the  furnace  and  its  deep  throat,  its  long 
shovels,  its  hollow  and  black  passage-way.  Parallel 
with  these  constructions  was  a  building,  sufficiently 
poor  in  aspect,  which  served  as  habitation  for  the 
family  and  in  which  the  wagon-houses,  the  stables, 
the  cow-houses,  the  barn,  had  been  constructed. 
Chickens  and  pigs  wandered  about  in  the  large  enclos- 
ure.    The  cleanness  which  pervaded  these  different 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  I41 

establishments,  and  their  good  state  of  repair,  testi- 
fied to  the  vigilance  of  the  master. 

"  Vigneau's  predecessor,"  said  Benassis,  "was  a 
wretch,  an  idler  who  loved  only  to  drink.  Formerly 
a  workman,  he  knew  how  to  heat  his  furnace  and 
attend  to  his  moulds,  that  was  all;  he  had  neither 
activity  nor  commercial  spirit.  If  no  one  came  for 
his  merchandise,  it  remained  there,  deteriorating  and 
ruining.  Consequently,  he  was  always  starving. 
His  wife,  whom  he  had  rendered  almost  imbecile  by 
his  bad  treatment,  grovelled  in  poverty.  This  idle- 
ness, this  incurable  stupidity,  was  so  painful  to  me, 
and  the  aspect  of  this  establishment  was  so  disagree- 
able to  me,  that  I  avoided  passing  this  way.  Fortu- 
nately, this  man  and  his  wife  were  both  old. 

"One  fine  day,  the  tile-maker  had  a  paralytic 
stroke,  and  I  immediately  had  him  placed  in  the  hos- 
pital at  Grenoble.  The  proprietor  of  the  tile-works 
consented  to  take  them  back  without  dispute  in  the 
state  in  which  they  were,  and  I  sought  some  new 
tenants  who  would  be  able  to  participate  in  the  ame- 
liorations which  I  wished  to  introduce  in  all  the  in- 
dustries of  the  canton.  The  husband  of  Madame 
Gravier's  femme  de  chambre,  a  poor  workman  earn- 
ing very  small  wages  with  a  potter  for  whom  he 
worked,  and  who  could  not  support  his  family,  took 
my  advice.  This  man  had  sufficient  courage  to  take 
our  tile-works  on  a  lease  without  having  a  denier  to 
his  name.  He  installed  himself,  taught  his  wife,  his 
wife's  old  mother,  and  his  own  to  make  tiles;  he 
constituted  them  his  workmen.    Upon  the  word  of  an 


142  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

honest  man!  I  do  not  know  how  they  managed  it. 
Probably  Vigneau  borrowed  the  wood  to  heat  his 
furnace,  he  doubtless  went  by  night  to  seek  for  his 
materials  by  panierfuls  at  a  time,  and  manufactured 
them  during  the  day;  in  short,  he  manifested  secretly 
a  boundless  energy,  and  the  two  old  mothers,  in  rags, 
worked  like  negroes.  Vigneau  was  thus  able  to  turn 
out  several  kilnfuls,  and  got  through  his  first  year, 
eating  bread  dearly  bought  with  the  sweat  of  his 
family;  but  he  sustained  himself.  His  courage,  his 
patience,  his  qualities,  rendered  him  interesting  to 
many  persons,  and  he  made  himself  known.  Inde- 
fatigable, he  hastened  in  the  morning  to  Grenoble, 
there  sold  his  tiles  and  his  bricks;  then  he  came  back 
to  his  own  place  toward  the  middle  of  the  day,  and 
returned  to  the  city  during  the  night;  he  seemed  to 
multiply  himself. 

■  "Toward  the  end  of  the  first  year  he  took  two 
young  lads  to  aid  him.  Seeing  this,  I  lent  him  some 
money.  Well,  monsieur,  the  condition  of  this  family 
ameliorated  from  year  to  year.  In  the  second  year, 
the  two  old  mothers  no  longer  made  bricks,  nor 
broke  up  the  stones;  they  cultivated  the  little  gar- 
dens, made  the  soup,  mended  the  garments,  spun 
during  the  evening,  and  gathered  wood  in  the  day- 
time. The  young  wife,  who  knew  how  to  read  and 
write,  kept  the  accounts.  Vigneau  had  a  little  horse 
with  which  to  go  about  the  neighborhood  to  look  for 
customers;  then  he  studied  the  art  of  brickmaking, 
found  a  method  of  manufacturing  handsome  square 
white  tiles,  and  sold  them  under  the  current  price. 


THE  cou^r^RY  doctor  143 

The  third  year,  he  had  a  cart  and  two  horses. 
When  he  set  up  his  first  cart,  his  wife  became 
almost  elegant.  Everything  in  his  household  was  in 
accord  with  his  gains,  and  he  always  maintained 
there  order,  economy,  cleanliness,  the  generating 
principles  of  his  little  fortune.  He  was  finally  able 
to  have  six  workmen  and  to  pay  them  well;  he  had 
a  carter,  and  set  everything  about  him  on  a  very 
good  footing;  in  short,  little  by  little,  by  using  his 
ingenuity,  by  extending  his  fabrication  and  his  busi- 
ness, he  found  himself  in  comfortable  circumstances. 
"  Last  year  he  purchased  the  tile-works;  next 
year  he  will  rebuild  his  house.  At  present,  all  these 
good  people  are  in  good  condition  and  well  clothed. 
The  wife,  thin  and  pale,  who  at  first  shared  the 
cares  and  the  anxieties  of  her  husband,  has  again 
become  plump,  fresh,  and  pretty.  The  two  old 
mothers  are  very  happy,  and  superintend  the 
minor  details  of  the  house  and  the  business.  Labor 
has  produced  money,  and  money,  in  giving  tran- 
quillity, has  bestowed  health,  abundance,  and  cheer- 
fulness. Truly,  this  household  is  for  me  the  living 
history  of  my  commune  and  that  of  young  commer- 
cial States.  These  tile-works,  which  I  used  to  see 
dull,  empty,  dirty,  unproductive,  are  now  in  full 
activity,  well  peopled,  animated,  rich,  and  well  fur- 
nished. See,  there  is  a  good  amount  of  wood,  and  all 
the  materials  necessary  for  the  work  of  the  season, — 
for  you  know  that  tiles  are  only  manufactured  during 
a  certain  part  of  the  year,  between  June  and  Sep- 
tember.    Does  not  all  this  activity  give  pleasure? 


144  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

My  tile-maker  has  co-operated  in  all  the  buildings  of 
the  town.  Always  wide-awake,  always  going  and 
coming,  always  active,  he  is  called  the  devouring* 
by  the  people  of  the  canton." 

Benassis  had  scarcely  pronounced  these  words, 
when  a  young  woman,  well  dressed,  with  a  pretty 
cap,  white  stockings,  a  silk  apron,  a  pink  dress,  a 
costume  that  recalled  somewhat  her  former  state  as 
a  femme  de  chambre,  opened  the  latticed  door  which 
led  into  the  garden  and  came  forward  as  rapidly  as 
her  condition  would  admit.  But  the  two  horse- 
men went  to  meet  her.  Madame  Vigneau  was,  in 
fact,  a  pretty  woman,  plump  enough,  with  a  tanned 
complexion,  although  her  skin,  naturally,  should  be 
fair.  Although  her  forehead  retained  some  wrinkles, 
vestiges  of  her  former  poverty,  she  had  a  happy  and 
attractive  countenance. 

"  Monsieur  Benassis,"  said  she,  with  a  persuasive 
accent,  on  seeing  him  stop,  "will  you  not  do  me  the 
honor  to  rest  a  moment  in  my  house?" 

"  Certainly,"  he  replied.  "  Captain,  pass  in." 
"These  messieurs  must  be  quite  warm!  Will 
you  have  a  little  milk,  or  some  wine.?  Monsieur 
Benassis,  taste  the  wine  that  my  husband  has  had 
the  kindness  to  procure  for  my  confinement;  you 
will  tell  me  if  it  is  good." 

"  You  have  a  worthy  man  for  a  husband." 
"Yes,   monsieur,"   she   replied,  calmly,  turning 
round,  "I  have  been  greatly  favored!" 

*Le  divorant,  or  U  devoirant,  was  one  of  an  association  of  workmen.  (See 
History  of  the  Thirteen.) 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  145 

"  We  will  not  take  anything,  Madame  Vigneau; 
I  came  only  to  see  if  any  accident  had  happened  to 
you." 

"  Nothing,"  she  said.  "You  see,  I  was  in  the 
garden  occupied  in  turning  up  the  ground,  for  some- 
thing to  do." 

At  this  moment  the  two  mothers  came  up  to  see 
Benassis,  and  the  carter  remained  motionless  in  the 
middle  of  the  court  in  a  position  that  permitted  him 
to  see  the  doctor. 

"Let  us  see,  give  me  your  hand,"  said  he  to 
Madame  Vigneau. 

He  felt  the  pulse  of  the  young  wife  with  a 
scrupulous  attention,  remaining  thoughtful  and  si- 
lent. During  this  time  the  three  women  were 
examining  the  commandant  with  that  nalVe  curi- 
osity which  the  country  people  have  no  shame  in 
expressing. 

"All  for  the  best,"  exclaimed  the  doctor,  cheer- 
fully. 

"Will  she  soon  be  delivered.?"  said  the  two 
mothers. 

"  Why,  this  week,  doubtless.  Vigneau  is  on  the 
road.-*"  he  asked,  after  a  pause. 

"  Yes,  monsieur,"  replied  the  young  wife;  "  he  is 
hurrying  up  his  affairs  so  that  he  can  remain  at 
home  when  I  am  brought  to  bed,  the  dear  man!" 

"Go  on,  my  children,  and  prosper!  Continue  to 
increase  your  fortune  and  to  increase  the  world." 

Genestas  was  full  of  admiration  for  the  cleanliness 
which  pervaded  the  interior  of  this  almost  ruined 


146  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

house.  On  seeing  the  officer's  surprise,  Benassis 
said  to  him: 

"It  is  only  Madame  Vigneau  who  knows  how  to 
keep  a  household  thus  neat!  I  should  like  it  if  sev- 
eral of  the  people  of  the  town  came  here  to  get  some 
lessons." 

The  tile-maker's  wife  turned  her  head  away, 
blushing;  but  the  two  mothers  frankly  allowed  to 
appear  on  their  faces  all  the  pleasure  which  the 
doctor's  eulogy  caused  them,  and  all  three  of  them 
accompanied  him  to  the  spot  where  the  horses 
stood. 

"Well,"  said  Benassis,  addressing  the  two  old 
women,  "  now  you  are  very  happy.  Did  you  not 
wish  to  be  grandmothers?" 

*'  Ah!  do  not  speak  to  me  of  them,"  said  the 
young  wife,  "  they  set  me  wild.  My  two  mothers 
want  a  boy;  my  husband  desires  a  little  girl, — I 
think  that  it  will  be  very  difficult  for  me  to  content 
them  ail." 

"But  you,  what  do  you  want?"  said  Benassis, 
laughing. 

"  Ah!  I,  monsieur,  I  want  a  child." 

"You  see,  she  is  already  a  mother,"  said  the 
doctor  to  the  officer,  as  he  took  his  horse  by  the 
bridle. 

"  Adieu,  Monsieur  Benassis,"  said  the  young  wife. 
"  My  husband  will  be  very  sorry  not  to  have  been 
here  when  he  learns  that  you  came." 

"  He  has  not  forgotten  to  send  me  my  thousand 
tiles  to  the  Grange-aux-Belles?" 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 47 

"  You  know  very  well  that  he  would  leave  all  the 
orders  in  the  canton  to  serve  you.  Yes,  his  greatest 
regret  is  to  take  your  money;  but  I  say  to  him  that 
your  crowns  bring  good  luck,  and  that  is  true." 

"Au  revoir,"  said  Benassis. 

The  three  women,  the  carter,  and  the  two  work- 
men, who  had  come  out  of  the  buildings  to  see  the 
doctor,  stood  in  a  group  about  the  rustic  fence 
which  served  as  an  entrance  to  the  tile-works,  so  as 
to  enjoy  his  presence  up  to  the  last  moment,  as  all 
of  us  do  for  those  dear  to  us.  Should  not  the  inspi- 
rations of  the  heart  be  the  same  everywhere!  thus 
the  pleasant  customs  of  friendship  are  naturally 
observed  in  every  country. 

After  having  looked  at  the  sun,  Benassis  said  to 
his  companion: 

"  We  have  still  two  hours  of  daylight,  and,  if  you 
are  not  too  hungry,  we  will  go  to  see  a  charming 
creature  to  whom  I  almost  always  give  the  time 
which  I  have  left  between  the  hour  of  my  dinner 
and  that  in  which  my  visits  are  ended.  She  is  called 
my  bonne  amie  in  the  canton;  but  do  not  think  that 
this  appellation,  here  used  to  designate  a  future 
spouse,  can  cover  or  authorize  the  slightest  slander. 
Although  my  care  for  this  poor  child  renders  her  the 
object  of  a  jealousy  that  may  readily  be  compre- 
hended, the  opinion  which  everyone  has  formed  of 
my  character  forbids  all  malicious  suggestions. 

"  If  no  one  is  able  to  explain  to  himself  the  whim 
to  which  I  seem  to  yield  in  allowing  to  La  Fosseuse 
an  income  which  enables  her  to  live  without  working, 


148  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

everybody  believes  in  her  virtue;  everybody  knows 
that  if  my  affection  once  passed  the  bounds  of  a 
friendly  protection  I  should  not  hesitate  a  moment 
to  marry  her.  But,"  added  the  doctor,  forcing  a 
smile,  "  there  does  not  exist  any  wife  for  me,  neither 
in  this  canton  nor  elsewhere.  An  expansive  man,  my 
dear  monsieur,  feels  an  invincible  need  of  attaching 
himself  particularly  to  one  thing  or  to  one  being 
among  all  the  beings  and  all  the  things  with  which  he 
is  surrounded,  above  all,  when  for  him  life  is  empty. 
Therefore,  believe  me,  always  judge  favorably  a 
man  who  loves  his  dog  or  his  horse!  Among  the 
many  sufferers  which  chance  has  confided  to  me, 
this  poor  little  sick  one  is  for  me  what,  in  my 
country  of  the  sun,  in  Languedoc,  is  the  favorite 
ewe  on  which  the  shepherdesses  put  faded  ribbons, 
to  which  they  talk,  which  they  allow  to  pasture  by 
the  side  of  the  grain,  and  whose  lagging  steps  the 
dog  never  hastens." 

As  he  spoke  these  words,  Benassis  remained 
standing,  grasping  the  mane  of  his  horse,  ready  to 
mount,  and  yet  not  mounting,  as  though  the  feeling 
which  moved  him  was  one  which  could  not  accord 
with  any  sudden  movement. 

"Come,"  he  exclaimed,  "let  us  go  to  see  her! 
To  take  you  to  her  house,  is  not  that  to  say  to  you 
that  I  treat  her  like  a  sister.?" 

When  the  two  horsemen  were  mounted,  Genestas 
said  to  the  doctor : 

"Should  I  be  indiscreet  in  asking  of  you  some 
information  concerning  your  Fosseuse.'     Among  all 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  149 

the  existences  with  which  you  have  made  me  ac- 
quainted, she  should  not  be  the  least  interesting." 

"  Monsieur,"  replied  Benassis,  stopping  his  horse, 
**  perhaps  you  will  not  share  in  all  the  interest  with 
which  La  Fosseuse  inspires  me.  Her  destiny  re- 
sembles my  own,  we  have  both  missed  our  voca- 
tions; the  sentiment  which  I  have  for  her,  and  the 
emotions  which  I  experience  in  seeing  her,  arise 
from  the  similarity  of  our  situations.  Once  entered 
on  the  career  of  arms,  you  have  followed  your 
inclination,  or  you  have  acquired  a  liking  for  this 
calling;  otherwise  you  would  not  have  remained  till 
your  present  age  under  the  heavy  harness  of  military 
discipline;  therefore  you  would  naturally  not  com- 
prehend either  the  unhappiness  of  a  soul,  the  de- 
sires of  which  constantly  arise  and  are  constantly 
disappointed,  or  the  constant  griefs  of  a  creature 
forced  to  live  otherwise  than  in  her  own  sphere. 
Such  sufferings  remain  a  secret  between  these  creat- 
ures and  God,  who  sends  to  them  these  afflictions, 
for  they  alone  are  acquainted  with  the  force  of  the 
impressions  produced  upon  them  by  the  events  of 
life. 

"Nevertheless,  you  yourself,  a  hardened  witness 
of  so  many  misfortunes  produced  in  the  course  of  a 
long  war,  have  you  not  surprised  in  your  own  heart 
a  certain  melancholy  on  seeing  a  tree  the  leaves  of 
which  were  yellow  in  the  midst  of  spring,  a  tree 
languishing  and  dying  through  not  having  been 
planted  in  a  soil  in  which  might  be  found  the  ele- 
ments necessary  to  its  entire  development.?     From 


I50  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

the  age  of  twenty,  the  passive  melancholy  of  a 
stunted  plant  has  always  been  painful  for  me  to  see; 
to-day  I  always  turn  my  head  away  at  this  sight. 
My  youthful  distress  was  the  vague  presentiment  of 
my  sorrows  as  a  man,  a  sort  of  sympathy  between 
my  present  and  a  future  which  I  perceived  instinct- 
ively in  this  vegetable  life  bowed  before  its  time 
toward  that  final  term  which  awaits  both  trees  and 
men." 

"  I  thought,  when  I  saw  you  to  be  so  good,  that  you 
had  suffered!" 

"You  comprehend,  monsieur,"  resumed  the  phy- 
sician, without  replying  to  this  speech  of  Genestas, 
*•■  that  to  speak  of  La  Fosseuse  is  to  speak  of  myself. 
La  Fosseuse  is  a  plant  exiled,  but  a  human  plant, 
devoured  incessantly  by  sad  or  profound  thoughts 
which  multiply  themselves  by  each  other.  This 
poor  girl  is  always  suffering.  In  her,  the  soul  is 
killing  the  body.  Could  I  see  with  coldness  a  feeble 
creature  a  prey  to  the  unhappiness  the  greatest  and 
the  least  appreciated  that  there  is  in  our  egotistical 
world,  when  I,  a  man  and  strong  against  suffer- 
ing, am  tempted  every  evening  to  refuse  to  carry 
the  burden  of  a  similar  unhappiness?  Perhaps  I 
would  even  refuse,  were  it  not  for  a  religious  idea 
which  blunts  my  grief  and  expands  in  my  heart 
soft  illusions.  Were  we  not  all  the  children  of  the 
same  God,  La  Fosseuse  would  still  be  my  sister  in 
suffering!" 

Benassis  pressed  the  flanks  of  his  horse  and 
hastened  on  the  commandant  Genestas,  as  though 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  151 

he  dreaded  continuing  in  this  tone  the  conversation 
commenced. 

"Monsieur,"  he  resumed,  when  the  horses  were 
trotting  together,  "  Nature  has,  so  to  speak,  created 
this  poor  girl  for  pain,  as  she  has  created  other 
women  for  pleasure.  When  we  see  such  predes- 
tinations, it  is  impossible  not  to  believe  in  another 
life.  Everything  affects  La  Fosseuse,  —  if  the 
weather  is  gray  and  sombre,  she  is  mournful  and 
weeps  with  the  sky;  this  expression  belongs  to  her. 
She  sings  with  the  birds,  becomes  calm  and  serene 
again  with  the  weather;  finally  she  becomes  beau- 
tiful on  a  fine  day;  a  delicate  perfume  is  for  her 
an  almost  inexhaustible  pleasure, — I  have  seen  her 
enjoying  for  an  entire  day  the  odor  exhaled  by  mi- 
gnonette after  one  of  those  rainy  mornings  which  de- 
velop the  souls  of  flowers  and  give  to  the  day  I  do  not 
know  what  freshness  and  brilliancy;  she  had  expanded 
with  nature,  with  all  the  plants.  If  the  atmosphere 
is  heavy,  charged  with  electricity.  La  Fosseuse  has 
vapors  which  nothing  can  calm,  she  goes  to  bed  and 
complains  of  a  thousand  different  ills  without  know- 
ing what  it  is  that  ails  her;  if  I  question  her,  she 
replies  that  her  bones  are  softening,  that  her  flesh 
is  dissolving  into  water.  During  these  inanimate 
hours  she  is  conscious  of  life  only  through  suffering; 
her  heart  is  outside  of  her,  to  repeat  to  you  another 
of  her  sayings. 

"  Sometimes  I  have  seen  the  poor  girl  weeping  at 
the  appearance  of  certain  scenes  which  are  formed 
in  our  mountains  at  sunset,  when   numerous  and 


152  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

magnificent  clouds  gather  over  our  golden  peaks. 
'Why  do  you  weep,  my  little  one?'  I  said  to  her. 
'  I  do  not  know,  monsieur,'  she  replied;  *  I  am  like 
one  stupefied  in  looking  up,  and  I  do  not  know  where 
I  am,  through  looking.'  'But  what  do  you- see 
then?'  '  Monsieur,  I  cannot  tell  it  to  you.'  In  vain 
you  questioned  her  then  during  a  whole  evening,  you 
would  not  draw  from  her  a  single  word;  but  she  would 
give  you  looks  full  of  thoughtfulness,  or  remain  with 
humid  eyes,  half  silent,  evidently  meditating.  Her 
meditation  is  so  profound  that  it  communicates 
itself;  at  least,  she  then  acts  upon  me  like  a  cloud 
too  much  charged  with  electricity.  One  day  I 
pressed  her  with  questions,  I  made  every  effort  to 
make  her  talk  and  I  said  to  her  a  few  words  a  little 
too  earnest, — well,  monsieur,  she  melted  into  tears. 
At  other  moments  La  Fosseuse  is  cheerful,  at- 
tractive, laughing,  active,  spirituelle;  she  converses 
with  pleasure,  expresses  novel  ideas,  original  ones. 
Incapable,  moreover,  of  any  kind  of  consecutive 
work,  when  she  goes  into  the  fields,  she  remains 
for  entire  hours  occupied  in  looking  at  a  flower,  in 
watching  running  water,  in  examining  the  pictur- 
esque marvels  which  are  to  be  found  under  clear 
and  tranquil  streams,  those  pretty  mosaics  com- 
posed of  pebbles,  of  earth,  of  sand,  of  aquatic  plants, 
of  mosses,  of  brownish  sediments  of  which  the  colors 
are  so  soft,  of  which  the  tones  offer  such  curious 
contrasts. 

"  When  I  first  arrived  in  this  country,  the  poor 
girl  was  dying  with  hunger;  humiliated  at  accepting 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  153 

the  bread  of  others,  she  had  had  recourse  to  public 
charity  only  at  the  moment  she  was  compelled  to  do 
so  by  extreme  suffering.  Frequently,  shame  giving 
her  energy,  she  would  labor  in  the  fields  for  several 
days;  but,  very  soon  exhausted,  a  malady  would 
oblige  her  to  abandon  the  work  commenced.  When 
scarcely  restored,  she  would  go  to  some  farm  in  the 
neighborhood  and  ask  to  take  charge  of  the  cattle; 
but,  after  discharging  her  tasks  with  intelligence, 
she  would  leave  without  giving  a  reason.  Her  daily 
labor  was  doubtless  too  heavy  a  yoke  for  her,  as  she 
was  all  independence  and  caprice.  Then  she  would 
gather  truffles  and  mushrooms,  and  go  to  sell  them 
in  Grenoble.  In  the  city,  tempted  by  some  trinkets, 
she  forgot  her  poverty  in  finding  herself  rich  with 
some  small  coins,  and  would  buy  herself  ribbons  and 
knick-knacks  without  thinking  of  her  to-morrow's 
bread.  Then,  if  some  young  girl  of  the  town  de- 
sired her  brass  cross,  her  heart  a  la  Jeannette,  or  her 
velvet  ribbon,  she  would  give  them  to  her,  happy  in 
bestowing  pleasure,  for  she  lived  by  her  affections. 
Thus  La  Fosseuse  was  alternately  loved,  pitied, 
and  contemned.  The  poor  girl  suffered  in  every- 
thing,— in  her  idleness,  in  her  generosity,  in  her 
coquetry;  for  she  is  coquettish,  dainty,  curious;  in 
short,  she  is  a  woman,  she  yields  to  her  impressions 
and  to  her  tastes  with  the  na'i'vete  of  a  child, — relate 
to  her  some  fine  action,  she  thrills  and  reddens,  her 
breast  heaves,  she  weeps  for  joy;  if  you  tell  her 
some  story  of  robbery,  she  grows  pale  with  fright. 
It  is  the  truest  nature,  the  frankest  heart,  and  the 


154  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

most  delicate  probity  that  can  be  met  with;  if  you 
were  to  confide  to  her  a  hundred  pieces  of  gold,  she 
would  bury  them  in  a  corner  and  continue  to  beg  her 
bread." 

There  was  an  alteration  in  the  doctor's  voice  as  he 
pronounced  these  words. 

"I  wished  to  try  her,  monsieur,"  he  went  on, 
"and  I  repented  of  it.  A  trial,  is  it  not  spying, 
suspicion  at  the  very  least.?" 

Here  the  doctor  paused  as  if  making  some  secret 
reflection,  and  in  nowise  noticed  the  embarrass- 
ment into  which  his  words  had  thrown  his  com- 
panion, who,  not  to  allow  his  confusion  to  be 
perceived,  occupied  himself  in  disentangling  his 
horse's  reins.  Benassis  presently  resumed  his  dis- 
course. 

"  I  should  like  to  marry  off  my  Fosseuse,  I  would 
give  willingly  one  of  my  farms  to  some  worthy 
youth  who  would  render  her  happy,  and  she  would 
be.  Yes,  the  poor  girl  would  love  her  children  to 
distraction,  and  all  the  sentiments  which  are  super- 
abundant in  her  would  expand  in  that  which  com- 
prehends them  all  for  the  woman,  in  maternify ;  but 
no  man  has  been  able  to  please  her.  She  has,  how- 
ever, a  sensitiveness  that  is  dangerous  for  her;  she 
is  aware  of  it,  and  confessed  to  me  her  nervous  pre- 
disposition when  she  saw  that  I  perceived  it.  She  is 
of  the  small  number  of  women  in  whom  the  slightest 
contact  produces  a  dangerous  thrill;  for  this  reason 
we  may  admire  her  discretion,  her  womanly  pride. 
She   is  as  wild  as  a  swallow.      Ah!   what  a  rich 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 55 

nature,  monsieur!  She  was  made  to  be  a  woman  opu- 
lent, beloved;  she  would  have  been  beneficent  and 
constant.  At  twenty-two,  she  is  already  sinking 
under  the  weight  of  her  soul,  and  perishing  a  victim 
of  her  too  vibrating  fibres,  of  her  organization  too 
strong  or  too  delicate.  A  vivid  passion  betrayed, 
would  render  her  mad,  my  poor  Fosseuse! 

"After  having  studied  her  temperament,  after 
having  recognized  the  reality  of  her  long  nervous 
attacks  and  of  her  electric  aspirations,  after  having 
found  her  in  most  striking  harmony  with  the  changes 
in  the  atmosphere,  with  the  variations  of  the  moon, 
facts  which  I  have  carefully  verified,  I  have  taken 
charge  of  her,  monsieur,  as  of  a  creature  outside  of 
the  others,  one  whose  sickly,  delicate  existence 
could  be  comprehended  by  me  alone.  It  is,  as  I 
said  to  you,  the  ewe  with  the  ribbons.  But  you  are 
going  to  see  her,  there  is  her  little  house." 

At  this  moment  they  had  arrived  at  about  a  third 
of  the  height  of  the  mountain  by  slopes  bordered  by 
bushes,  which  they  ascended  at  a  walk.  On  attain- 
ing the  turning  of  one  of  these  slopes,  Genestas 
perceived  the  house  of  La  Fosseuse.  This  habita- 
tion was  situated  on  one  of  the  principal  hillocks  of 
the  mountain.  There,  a  pretty  sward  on  a  slope,  of 
about  three  arpents  in  extent,  planted  with  trees  and 
from  which  sprang  several  cascades,  was  surrounded 
by  a  little  wall  high  enough  to  serve  as  an  enclosure, 
not  high  enough  to  shut  off  the  view  of  the  country. 
The  house,  built  of  bricks  and  covered  with  a  flat 
roof  which  extended  over  on  every  side  for  several 


I  $6  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

feet,  made  a  charming  effect  in  the  landscape.  It 
consisted  of  a  ground-floor  and  a  first  floor  with  a 
door  and  outside  shutters  painted  green.  Facing  the 
south,  it  had  neither  sufficient  depth  nor  width  to 
have  any  other  openings  than  those  of  the  front,  the 
rustic  elegance  of  which  consisted  in  an  excessive 
neatness.  The  little  protruding  penthouses  in  the 
German  manner  were  lined  with  boards  painted 
white.  Some  acacias  in  flower  and  other  odorous 
plants,  some  thorn-roses,  climbing  plants,  a  great 
walnut-tree  which  had  been  spared  and  some  weep- 
ing-willows growing  in  the  streams,  surrounded  this 
house.  Behind  it  was  a  large  group  of  beech-trees 
and  firs,  a  great  dark  background  against  which  this 
pretty  little  building  was  sharply  relieved. 

At  this  hour  of  the  day,  the  air  was  balmy  with 
the  different  odors  of  the  mountain  and  of  the  garden 
of  La  Fosseuse.  The  sky,  pure  and  tranquil,  was 
cloudy  at  the  horizon.  In  the  distance,  the  summits 
began  to  assume  the  rosy  tints  which  the  setting  sun 
often  gives  them.  At  this  height,  the  valley  could 
be  seen  in  its  full  extent,  from  Grenoble  to  the  cir- 
cular enclosing  rocks  at  the  bottom  of  which  is  the 
little  lake  which  Genestas  had  crossed  the  day  be- 
fore. Above  the  house,  and  at  a  sufficiently  great 
distance,  appeared  the  line  of  poplars  which  indi- 
cated the  great  highway  from  the  town  to  Grenoble. 
And  finally  the  town,  obliquely  traversed  by  the 
rays  of  the  sun,  sparkled  like  a  diamond  in  reflect- 
ing from  all  its  windows  the  red  illumination  which 
seemed  to  twinkle.     At  this  sight,  Genastas  stopped 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 


157 


his  horse,  pointed  to  the  buildings  in  the  valley,  the 
new  town,  and  the  house  of  La  Fosseuse. 

'*  Next  to  the  victory  of  Wagram  and  the  return 
of  Napoleon  to  the  Tuileries  in  181 5,"  said  he,  with 
a  sigh,  "this  gives  me  the  greatest  emotion.  I  owe 
to  you  this  pleasure,  monsieur,  for  you  have  taught 
me  to  know  the  beauties  which  a  man  can  find  at 
the  sight  of  a  landscape." 

"Yes,"  said  the  doctor,  smiling,  "it  is  better  to 
build  cities  than  to  take  them." 

"  Oh!  monsieur,  the  taking  of  Moscow  and  the 
surrender  of  Mantua!  But  you  do  not  know  what 
that  is!  Is  it  not  our  glory  for  all  of  us.^*  You  are  a 
brave  man,  but  Napoleon  also  was  a  good  man;  had 
it  not  been  for  England,  you  two  would  have  appre- 
ciated each  othep  and  he  would  never  have  fallen, 
our  Emperor  <^  can  well  admit  that  I  love  him 
now,  he  is  dead!" —  and,"  said  the  officer,  looking 
around  him,  "there  are  no  spies  here.  What  a 
sovereign!  he  knew  the  whole  world  by  instinct!  he 
would  have  placed  you  in  his  Council  of  State 
because  he  was  an  administrator,  and  a  great  ad- 
ministrator, even  to  knowing  how  many  cartridges 
there  were  in  the  pouches  after  an  action.  Poor 
man!  Whilst  you  were  speaking  to  me  of  your 
Fosseuse,  I  was  thinking  that  he  was  dead  at  Saint 
/"^lelena,  he!  Hein!  was  that  the  climate  and  the 
^iweHmg^at  could  satisfy  the  man  accustomed  to 
live  with  his  f^t  in  the  stirrups  and  his  posteriors 
on  a  throne  ?Cjt  is  said  that  he  had  a  garden  there. 
The  deuce!  he  was  not  made  for  planting  cabbages. 


D 


158  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

Now,  we  must  serve  the  Bourbons,  and  loyally, 
monsieur;  for,  after  all,  France  is  France,  as  you 
said  yesterday." 

As  he  uttered  these  last  words,  Genestas  dis- 
mounted and  mechanically  imitated  Benassis,  who 
was  attaching  his  horse  by  the  bridle  to  a  tree. 

"  Is  she  not  here.?  "  said  the  doctor,  not  seeing  La 
Fosseuse  on  the  threshold  of  the  door. 

They  entered  and  found  no  one  in  the  salon  on 
the  ground-floor. 

**  She  heard  the  noise  of  the  two  horses,"  said 
Benassis,  smiling,  "  and  has  gone  upstairs  to  put  on 
a  cap,  a  girdle,  some  adornment." 

He  left  Genestas  alone,  and  went  up  himself  to 
look  for  La  Fosseuse.  The  commandant  examined 
the  salon.  The  walls  were  covered  with  a  paper 
with  a  gray  background  spotted  with  roses,  and  the 
floor  with  a  matting  of  straw  in  imitation  of  a  carpet. 
The  chairs,  the  easy-chair,  and  the  table  were  of 
wood  that  still  retained  its  bark.  A  kind  of  flower 
vases,  made  of  hoops  and  willow-work,  filled  with 
flowers  and  mosses,  decorated  this  chamber,  the 
windows  of  which  were  draped  with  curtains  of 
white  percale  with  red  fringes.  On  the  mantel- 
piece was  a  mirror,  a  plain  porcelain  vase  between 
two  lamps;  near  the  easy-chair  a  stool  in  fir-wood; 
then,  on  the  table,  some  linen  cut  out,  some  gus- 
sets prepared,  shirts  commenced,  in  short,  all  the 
paraphernalia  of  a  seamstress, — her  basket,  her 
scissors,  needle,  and  thread.  All  this  was  as  clean 
and  fresh   as  a  shell  thrown  up  by  the  sea  on  a 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 59 

corner  of  the  beach.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
corridor,  at  the  end  of  which  was  a  stairway,  Ge- 
nestas  saw  a  kitchen.  The  first  story,  like  the 
ground-floor,  could  consist  of  only  two  rooms. 

"  Do  not  be  afraid,"  said  Benassis  to  La  Fosseuse. 
"Come,  now,  come  down!" 

On  hearing  these  words,  Genestas  promptly  re- 
turned to  the  salon.  A  young  girl,  slender  and  with 
a  good  figure,  wearing  a  dress  with  a  neckerchief  of 
pink  percaline  with  a  thousand  stripes,  presently 
appeared,  red  with  shame  and  timidity.  Her  face 
was  remarkable  only  in  a  certain  flattening  of  the 
features,  which  made  it  resemble  those  Cossack  and 
Russian  countenances  which  the  disasters  of  18 14 
unfortunately  rendered  so  familiar  in  France.  La 
Fosseuse  had,  in  fact,  like  the  people  of  the  North, 
the  nose  elevated  at  the  end  and  much  sunken;  her 
mouth  was  large,  her  chin  small,  her  hands  and  her 
arms  were  red,  her  feet  large  and  strong  like  those 
of  the  peasant  women.  Although  she  had  been 
exposed  to  the  harsh  effects  of  the  weather,  to  the 
sun,  and  the  open  air,  her  complexion  was  as  pale 
as  a  withered  herb,  but  this  lack  of  color  made  her 
face  interesting  at  the  first  glance;  then  she  had 
in  her  blue  eyes  an  expression  so  gentle,  in  her 
movements  so  much  grace,  in  her  voice  so  much 
soul,  that,  notwithstanding  the  apparent  want  of 
harmony  between  her  features  and  the  qualities 
which  Benassis  had  praised  to  the  commandant,  the 
latter  recognized  the  capricious  and  sickly  creature, 
a  prey  to  all  the  sufferings  of  a  nature  thwarted  in 


l60  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

its  developments.  After  having  briskly  stirred  up  a 
fire  of  peat  and  dry  branches,  La  Fosseuse  seated 
herself  in  an  armchair  and  resumed  her  work  on  an 
unfinished  shirt,  remaining  under  the  officer's  eyes, 
half-ashamed,  not  venturing  to  raise  her  own  eyes, 
calm  in  appearance;  but  the  hurried  movement  of 
her  corsage,  the  beauty  of  which  struck  Genestas, 
betrayed  her  fear. 

"Well,  my  poor  child,  are  you  getting  on  well?" 
said  Benassis  to  her,  taking  up  the  pieces  of  linen 
destined  to  make  shirts. 

La  Fosseuse  looked  at  the  doctor  with  a  timid 
and  supplicating  air. 

"  Do  not  scold  me,  monsieur,"  she  replied;  "  1  have 
done  nothing  on  them  to-day,  although  they  were 
ordered  of  me  by  you  and  for  people  who  are  in 
great  need  of  them;  but  the  weather  was  so  beauti- 
ful! I  went  out  walking,  I  gathered  for  you  mush- 
rooms and  white  truffles,  which  I  carried  to  Jac- 
quotte:  she  was  very  well  pleased,  for  you  have 
company  to  dinner.  I  was  very  happy  to  have 
guessed  that.  Something  told  me  to  go  in  search  of 
them." 

And  she  returned  to  her  sewing. 

"  You  have  here,  mademoiselle,  a  very  pretty 
house,"  said  Genestas  to  her. 

"It  is  not  mine  at  all,  monsieur,"  she  replied, 
looking  at  the  stranger  with  eyes  that  seemed  to 
blush,  "  it  belongs  to  Monsieur  Benassis." 

And  she  turned  her  eyes  softly  upon  the  doctor. 

"  You  know  very  well,  my  child,"  said  he,  taking 


A    VISIT  TO  LA  FOSSEUSE 


And  she  returned  to  her  sewing. 

"  You  have  here,  mademoiselle ,  a  very  pretty 
house"  said  Genestas  to  her. 

"It  is  not  mine  at  all,  monsieur',^  she  replied, 
looking  at  the  stranger  with  eyes  that  seemed  to 
blush,  ''it  belongs  to  Monsieur  Benassis." 


-*i^.y.t.^/,r.,i    Ify/  /y    il  ./ij    /.,^ 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  l6l 

her  by  the  hand,  "  that  you  will  never  be  turned 
out  of  it." 

La  Fosseuse  rose  suddenly  and  left  the  room. 

"  Well,"  said  the  doctor  to  the  officer,  **  what  do 
you  think  of  her?" 

"Why,"  replied  Genestas,  "she  singularly  af- 
fected me.  Ah!  you  have  arranged  her  nest  very 
nicely,  indeed!" 

"Bah!  paper  at  fifteen  or  twenty  sous,  but  well 
selected,  that  was  ail.  The  furniture  is  no  great 
things,  it  was  made  by  my  basket-maker,  who 
wished  to  testify  his  gratitude  to  me.  La  Fosseuse 
made  the  curtains  herself,  with  a  few  yards  of  calico. 
Her  dwelling,  her  very  simple  furniture,  seems  to  you 
pretty  because  you  find  it  on  the  slope  of  a  moun- 
tain, in  a  forsaken  country  where  you  did  not  expect 
to  find  anything  neat  and  clean;  but  the  secret  of 
this  elegance  is  in  a  sort  of  harmony  between  the 
house  and  nature,  which  has  here  brought  together 
the  streams,  some  trees  well  grouped,  and  given  this 
sward  her  most  beautiful  grasses,  her  perfumed 
strawberry-plants,  her  pretty  violets — " 

"Well,  what  is  it.?"  said  Benassis  to  La  Fos- 
seuse, who  re-entered  the  room. 

"  Nothing,  nothing,"  she  replied;  "  I  thought  that 
one  of  my  chickens  was  lost." 

She  was  telling  a  falsehood;  but  the  doctor  alone 
perceived  it,  and  whispered  in  her  ear: 

"You  have  been  weeping!" 

"  Why  do  you  say  such  things  to  me  before 
anyone.''"  she  replied. 


l62  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  Mademoiselle,"  said  Genestas  to  her,  "  you  are 
very  wrong  to  remain  here  all  alone;  in  a  cage  so 
charming  as  this,  you  should  have  a  husband." 

"  That  is  true,"  she  said;  "  but,  what  would  you 
have,  monsieur!  I  am  poor  and  I  am  hard  to  please. 
I  do  not  feel  inclined  to  go  and  carry  soup  into  the 
fields  or  to  drive  a  cart,  to  be  conscious  of  the 
poverty  of  those  whom  I  love  without  being  able  to 
put  an  end  to  it,  to  hold  children  in  my  arms  all  day, 
and  to  mend  the  ragged  garments  of  a  man.  Mon- 
sieur the  cure  tells  me  that  such  thoughts  as  these 
are  scarcely  Christian;  I  know  it  very  well,  but 
what  is  to  be  done.?  On  some  days  1  prefer  to  eat 
a  piece  of  dry  bread  rather  than  to  prepare  for  my- 
self something  for  dinner.  Why  would  you  have 
me  burden  a  man  with  my  faults.?  he  would,  per- 
haps, kill  himself  to  satisfy  my  whims,  and  that 
would  not  be  just.  Bast!  some  kind  of  ill-fortune 
has  been  given  to  me,  and  I  should  support  it 
alone." 

"  Moreover,  she  was  born  indolent,  my  poor 
Fosseuse,"  said  Benassis,  "and  she  must  be  taken 
as  she  is.  But  that  which  she  has  said  to  you  means 
that  she  has  not  yet  been  in  love  with  anyone,"  he 
added,  laughing. 

Then  he  rose  and  went  out  for  a  moment  on  the 
lawn. 

"You  must  love  Monsieur  Benassis  very  much.?" 
asked  Genestas  of  her. 

"  Oh!  yes,  monsieur!  and,  like  myself,  there  are 
many  people  in  the  canton  who  would  like  to  cut 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  163 

themselves  in  pieces  for  him.  But  he,  who  cures 
others,  he  has  something  himself  which  nothing  can 
cure.  You  are  his  friend;  you  know,  perhaps,  what 
it  is.-*  Who  is  it  that  could  give  grief  to  a  man  like 
him,  who  is  the  real  image  of  the  good  God  on  the 
earth?  I  know  several  here  who  believe  that  their 
grain  grows  better  when  he  has  passed  by  the  side 
of  their  field  in  the  morning." 

"And  you,  what  do  you  believe?" 

"  Why,  monsieur,  when  I  have  seen  him — " 

She  seemed  to  hesitate,  then  she  added: 

"  I  am  happy  for  the  whole  day." 

She  lowered  her  head,  and  plied  her  needle  with  a 
singular  rapidity. 

"  Well,  has  the  captain  told  you  some  story  about 
Napoleon?"  said  the  doctor,  re-entering. 

"  Monsieur  has  seen  the  Emperor?"  exclaimed  La 
Fosseuse,  regarding  the  officer's  face  with  a  passion- 
ate curiosity. 

"  ParW^M.'"  said  Genestas,  "  more  than  a  thou- 
sand times." 

"Ah!  how  much  I  should  like  to  know  about 
something  military!" 

"  To-morrow,  we  will  come,  perhaps,  to  take  a  cup 
of  cafd  au  lait  with  you.  And  you  shall  hear  about 
something  military,  my  child,"  said  Benassis,  taking 
her  by  the  neck  and  kissing  her  on  the  forehead. 
"She  is  my  daughter,  you  see!"  he  added,  turning 
toward  the  commandant;  "  when  I  have  not  kissed 
her  on  the  forehead,  there  is  something  missed  for 
me  in  my  day." 


l64  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

La  Fosseuse  clasped  the  hand  of  Benassis,  and 
said  to  him,  in  a  low  voice: 

"  Oh!  how  good  you  are!" 

They  left  her,  but  she  followed  them  to  see  them 
mount.     When  Genestas  was  in  the  saddle: 

"  Who  is,  then,  this  monsieur?"  she  whispered  in 
Benassis's  ear. 

"Ah!  ah!"  replied  the  doctor,  setting  his  foot  in 
the  stirrup,  "  perhaps  a  husband  for  you." 

She  remained  standing,  watching  them  descend 
the  slope,  and  when  they  passed  the  end  of  the  gar- 
den, they  still  saw  her,  mounted  upon  a  little  pile  of 
stones  that  she  might  still  follow  them  with  her  eyes 
and  make  a  last  sign  with  her  head. 

"Monsieur,  that  young  girl  has  something  extra- 
ordinary about  her,"  said  Genestas  to  the  physician 
when  they  were  at  some  distance  from  the  house. 

"Has  she  not?"  he  replied.  "I  have  said  to 
myself  twenty  times  that  she  would  make  a  charm- 
ing wife;  but  I  could  not  love  her  other  than  as 
one  loves  his  sister  or  his  daughter,  my  heart  is 
dead." 

"  Has  she  any  relatives?"  inquired  Genestas. 
"What  occupation  had  her  father  and  mother?" 

"Oh!  that  is  quite  a  story,"  replied  Benassis. 
"  She  has  no  longer  either  father  or  mother  or  rela- 
tives. There  is  nothing,  not  even  to  her  name, 
which  has  not  interested  me.  La  Fosseuse  was 
born  in  the  town.  Her  father,  a  laboring  man  of 
Saint-Laurent-du-Pont,  was  named  Ix  Fosseur,  doubt- 
less an   abbreviation   of  fossoyeur, — grave-digger — 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  165 

for,  from  time  immemorial,  the  office  of  interring  the 
dead  had  remained  in  his  family.  There  is  in  this 
name  all  the  melancholy  of  the  cemetery.  By 
virtue  of  a  Roman  custom,  still  in  usage  here,  as 
in  some  other  parts  of  France,  and  by  which  wives 
are  given  the  names  of  their  husbands  with  the  ad- 
dition of  a  feminine  termination,  this  girl  was  called 
la  Fosseuse,  from  her  father's  name.  This  day- 
laborer  had  married  for  love  the  femme  de  chambre 
of  I  know-not-what  countess  whose  estates  lay  at 
a  distance  of  a  few  leagues  from  the  town.  Here, 
as  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  passion  counts  for  but 
little  in  the  marriages.  Generally,  the  peasants 
want  a  wife  in  order  to  have  children,  to  have  a 
housekeeper  who  will  make  them  good  soup  and  bring 
it  to  them  in  the  fields,  who  will  spin  their  shirts  and 
mend  their  garments. 

**  Such  an  episode  had  not  happened  in  this  district 
for  a  long  time,  here  where  a  young  man  frequently 
deserts  his  promise  for  another  young  girl  richer  than 
she  by  three  or  four  arpents  of  land.  The  state  of 
the  Fosseur  and  his  wife  was  not  fortunate  enough 
to  win  our  Dauphinois  from  their  selfish  calcula- 
tions. The  mother,  who  was  a  beautiful  woman, 
died  in  child-bed  of  her  daughter.  The  husband 
grieved  so  much  at  this  loss  that  he  died  in  the 
course  of  the  year,  leaving  to  his  child  nothing  in 
the  world  but  a  frail  and  naturally  very  precarious 
existence.  The  little  one  was  charitably  taken  care 
of  by  a  female  neighbor,  who  brought  her  up  till 
she  was  nine  years  old.     The  charge  of  La  Fosseuse 


l66  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

becoming  too  heavy  a  burden  for  this  good  woman, 
she  sent  her  ward  to  beg  her  bread  along  the  road 
in  the  season  when  many  travellers  are  passing. 

"  One  day,  the  orphan  having  gone  to  ask  for  bread 
at  the  chateau  of  the  countess,  was  retained  there 
in  memory  of  her  mother.  Here,  educated  to  take  the 
position  one  day  of  femme  de  chamhre  to  the  daughter 
of  the  house,  who  was  married  five  years  later,  the 
poor  little  one  was  during  all  this  time  the  victim  of 
all  the  caprices  of  the  rich,  who,  for  the  most  part, 
have  nothing  constant  or  sustained  in  their  gener- 
osity,— benevolent  at  intervals  and  by  whims,  some- 
times protectors,  sometimes  friends,  sometimes 
masters,  they  falsify  the  already  false  situations  of 
the  unfortunate  children  in  whom  they  interest  them- 
selves, and  they  divert  themselves  carelessly  with 
their  hearts,  their  lives,  or  their  futures,  considering 
them  of  but  little  value.  La  Fosseuse  became  at 
first  almost  the  companion  of  the  young  heiress, — 
she  was  then  taught  to  read,  to  write,  and  her  future 
mistress  amused  herself  at  times  by  giving  her  les- 
sons in  music.  Alternately  young  lady  companion 
and  waiting-maid,  they  made  of  her  an  incomplete 
being.  She  acquired  a  taste  for  luxury,  for  adorn- 
ment, and  contracted  habits  not  in  accord  with  her 
real  position.  Misfortune  has  since  then  rudely  re- 
formed her  mind,  but  it  has  not  been  able  to  efface 
the  vague  sentiment  of  a  superior  destiny. 

"  Finally,  one  day,  a  day  indeed  fatal  for  this  poor 
girl,  the  young  countess,  then  married,  surprised  La 
Fosseuse,  who  was  then  no  more  than  her  femme  de 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  167 

chambre,  arrayed  in  one  of  her  ball-dresses  and 
dancing  before  a  mirror.  The  orphan,  then  sixteen 
years  old,  was  dismissed  without  pity.  Her  indo- 
lence caused  her  to  fall  into  poverty,  to  wander  along 
the  roads,  to  beg,  to  work,  as  I  have  related  to  you. 
Often  she  thought  of  drowning  herself,  sometimes 
also  of  giving  herself  to  the  first  comer;  the  greater 
part  of  the  time  she  lay  in  the  sun,  along  a  wall, 
sombre,  thoughtful,  her  head  in  the  grass;  the  travel- 
lers would  then  throw  her  a  few  sous,  precisely  be- 
cause she  asked  for  nothing.  She  was  for  a  year  in 
the  hospital  of  Annecy,  after  a  laborious  harvest  at 
which  she  had  worked  only  in  the  hope  of  dying. 
You  shall  hear  her  relate  herself  her  sentiments  and 
her  ideas  during  this  period  of  her  life;  she  is  often 
very  curious  in  her  ingenuous  confidences.  Finally, 
she  returned  to  the  town  about  the  period  when  I  re- 
solved to  settle  myself  there.  I  wished  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  mental  qualities  of  those  whom 
I  was  to  look  after.  1  therefore  studied  her  character, 
which  impressed  me;  then,  after  having  observed 
her  organic  imperfections,  I  resolved  to  take  care  of 
her.  Perhaps,  in  course  of  time,  she  will  end  by 
becoming  accustomed  to  the  task  of  sewing;  but, 
in  any  case,  I  have  assured  her  future." 

"  Is  she  entirely  alone  there?"  asked  Genestas. 

"  No,  one  of  my  shepherdesses  goes  to  sleep  with 
her,"  replied  the  physician.  "  You  did  not  see  the 
buildings  of  my  farm  which  are  above  the  house; 
they  are  concealed  by  the  firs.  Oh!  she  is  in  safety. 
Moreover,  there  are  no  evil  characters  in  our  valley; 


l68  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

if,  by  chance,  any  of  them  are  met  with,  I  send  them 
to  the  army,  where  they  make  excellent  soldiers." 

"  Poor  girl!  "  said  Genestas. 

"Ah!  the  people  of  the  canton  do  not  commiser- 
ate her,"  replied  Benassis;  "they  consider  her,  on 
the  contrary,  very  fortunate;  but  there  exists  this  dif- 
ference between  her  and  the  other  women,  that  to 
them  God  has  given  strength,  to  her,  feebleness; 
and  they  do  not  see  that." 

At  the  moment  when  the  two  horsemen  came  out 
on  the  road  to  Grenoble,  Benassis,  who  had  foreseen 
the  effect  of  this  new  extended  view  upon  Genestas, 
stopped  with  an  air  of  satisfaction  to  enjoy  his  sur- 
prise. Two  walls  of  verdure,  sixty  feet  high,  en- 
closed, as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  a  wide  highway, 
rounded  upward  in  the  middle  like  a  garden-walk, 
and  constituting  a  natural  monument  which  any 
man  might  be  proud  of  having  created.  The  trees, 
untrimmed,  formed  all  of  them  those  immense  green 
palms  which  render  the  Italian  poplar  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  objects  in  the  vegetable  kingdom. 
One  side  of  the  road,  already  invaded  by  the  shad- 
ows, presented  a  vast  wall  of  dark  leaves,  whilst 
the  other,  strongly  lit  up  by  the  setting  sun  which 
gave  to  the  young  twigs  golden  tints,  offered  the 
contrast  of  the  play  of  color  and  reflections  which 
the  light  and  the  breeze  produced  upon  its  moving 
curtain. 

"You  should  be  very  happy  here!"  exclaimed 
Genestas.  "  Everything  here  is  a  pleasure  for 
you." 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  169 

**  Monsieur,"  said  the  physician,  "the  love  for 
Nature  is  the  only  one  that  does  not  deceive  human 
hopes.  Here,  there  are  no  deceptions.  Look  at 
those  poplars  of  ten  years'  growth, — did  you  ever 
see  any  as  well  grown  as  mine?" 

"  God  is  great! "  said  the  soldier,  stopping  in  the 
middle  of  this  road  of  which  he  could  perceive  neither 
the  end  nor  the  beginning. 

"You  do  me  good,"  exclaimed  Benassis.  "It 
gives  me  pleasure  to  hear  you  repeat  what  I  have 
often  said  in  the  midst  of  this  avenue.  There  is  to 
be  found  here,  certainly,  something  religious.  We 
are  here  like  two  points,  and  the  consciousness  of 
our  littleness  brings  us  always  nearer  to  God." 

They  rode  along  slowly  and  in  silence,  listening 
to  the  sound  of  their  horses'  hoofs,  which  resounded 
in  this  gallery  of  verdure  as  if  they  were  under  the 
vaults  of  a  cathedral. 

"  How  many  emotions  of  which  the  inhabitants  of 
cities  have  no  suspicion!"  said  the  doctor.  "Do 
you  smell  the  perfume  exhaled  by  the  propolis  of  the 
poplars  and  by  the  resin  of  the  larch-trees  ?  What 
delights!" 

"Listen!"  exclaimed  Genestas.     "Let  us  stop." 

They  then  heard  a  singing  in  the  distance. 

"  Is  it  a  woman  or  a  man?  is  it  a  bird?"  asked  the 
commandant  under  his  breath.  "  Is  it  the  voice  of 
this  great  landscape?" 

"There  is  something  of  all  of  them,"  replied  the 
doctor,  dismounting  and  tying  his  horse  to  a  branch 
of  a  poplar. 


I70  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

Then  he  made  a  sign  to  the  officer  to  imitate  his 
example  and  to  follow  him.  They  went  with  slow 
steps  along  a  path  bordered  with  two  hedges  of 
hawthorn  in  flower  which  diffused  penetrating  odors 
in  the  humid  evening  air.  The  rays  of  the  sun 
entered  the  path  with  a  sort  of  impetuosity  which 
the  shadow  projected  by  the  long  curtain  of  poplars 
rendered  still  more  noticeable,  and  these  vigorous 
jets  of  light  enveloped  with  their  reddish  tints  a 
thatched  cottage  situated  at  the  end  of  this  sandy 
road.  A  golden  dust  seemed  to  be  thrown  upon  its 
roof  of  thatch,  usually  as  brown  as  the  shell  of  a 
chestnut,  and  the  dilapidated  ridges  of  which  were 
green  with  house-leek  and  moss.  The  cottage  could 
scarcely  be  seen  in  this  mist  of  light ;  but  the  old 
walls,  the  doors,  everything  had  a  fugitive  brilliancy, 
everything  was  fortuitously  beautiful,  as  is  the  hu- 
man countenance  at  moments,  under  the  empire  of 
some  passion  which  lightens  it  up  and  colors  it. 

There  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  life  in  the  open 
air  these  pleasant  places,  sylvan  and  momentary, 
which  draw  from  us  involuntarily  the  wish  of  the 
apostle  saying  to  Jesus  Christ  on  the  mountain: 
"Let  us  set  up  a  tent  and  rest  here.''*  This  landscape 
seemed  to  have  at  this  moment  a  voice  as  pure  and 
mild  as  it  was  itself  pure  and  mild,  but  a  voice  sad  as 
the  light  about  to  be  extinguished  in  the  west:  vague 
image  of  death,  a  notification  divinely  given  in  the 
heavens  by  the  sun,  as  it  is  given  on  earth  by  the 
flowers  and  the  pretty  ephemeral  insects.  At  this 
hour  the  tints  of  the  sun  are  touched  with  sadness. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  171 

and  this  song  was  sad;  a  popular  song,  moreover,  a 
song  of  love  and  regret,  which  formerly  had  served 
the  national  hatred  of  France  against  England,  but 
to  which  Beaumarchais  has  restored  its  true  poetry, 
by  translating  it  to  the  French  stage  and  putting  it  in 
the  mouth  of  a  page  who  opens  his  heart  to  his  god- 
mother. This  air  was  modulated  without  words  in 
a  plaintive  tune  by  a  voice  which  vibrated  in  the 
soul  and  affected  it  to  tenderness. 

"  It  is  the  swan's  song,"  said  Benassis.  "  In  the 
course  of  a  century,  this  voice  does  not  sound  twice 
in  men's  ears.  Let  us  hasten,  it  is  necessary  to 
stop  it  from  singing!  This  child  is  killing  himself,  it 
would  be  cruelty  to  listen  longer. — Be  silent,  there, 
Jacques!   Come,  now,  be  silent!"  cried  the  doctor. 

The  music  ceased.  Genestas  remained  standing, 
motionless  and  bewildered.  A  cloud  covered  the 
sun,  the  landscape  and  the  voice  were  silent  to- 
gether. Shadow,  cold,  and  silence  replaced  the  soft 
splendors  of  the  light,  the  warm  emanations  of  the 
atmosphere,  and  the  singing  of  the  child. 

"Why  do  you  disobey  me.?'.'_said  Benassis.    /*  I 
will   give  you  no  more  rice-cakesj^  nor  bouillon  of 
snails,  nor  fresh  dates,  nor  white  bread!    You  then       Y 
wish  to  die,  and  to  break  the  heart  of   your  poor     / 
mother?" 

Genestas  advanced  into  a  little  court,  kept  toler- 
ably clean,  and  saw  a  boy  of  fifteen,  feeble  as  a 
woman,  blond,  but  having  little  hair  and  colored 
as  though  he  had  been  rouging.  He  rose  slowly 
from  the  bench  on  which  he  had  been  sitting  under 


172  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

a  great  jessamine,  under  flowering  lilacs  which 
pushed  out  in  every  direction  and  enveloped  him 
with  their  foliage. 

"You  know  very  well,"  said  the  doctor,  "that  I 
told  you  to  go  to  bed  with  the  sun;  not  to  expose 
yourself  to  the  evening  chill,  and  not  to  talk, — what 
induced  you  to  sing?" 

"Dame!  Monsieur  Benassis,  it  was  very  warm 
here,  and  it  is  so  nice  to  be  warm!  I  am  always 
cold.  When  I  felt  so  well,  without  thinking,  1 
commenced  to  say  to  amuse  myself :  'Malbrouk  s'en 
va-t-en guerre,'  and  I  listened  to  myself,  because  my 
voice  almost  resembled  that  of  the  big  flute  of  your 
shepherd." 

"  Come,  now,  my  poor  Jacques,  do  not  let  this  hap- 
pen to  you  again,  do  you  hear.? — Give  me  your  hand." 

The  doctor  felt  his  pulse.  The  child  had  blue 
eyes,  usually  very  mild,  but  which  a  feverish  expres- 
sion now  rendered  brilliant. 

**  Ah,  yes,  1  was  sure  of  it,  you  are  in  a  perspira- 
tion," said  Benassis.  "Your  mother  is  not,  then,  at 
home?" 

"No,  monsieur!" 

"  Well,  then,  go  into  the  house  and  go  to  bed." 

The  young  patient,  followed  by  Benassis  and  the 
officer,  re-entered  the  cottage. 

"Will  you  light  a  candle,  Captain  Bluteau,"  said 
the  doctor,  who  was  aiding  Jacques  to  remove  his 
coarse,  ragged  garments. 

When  Genestas  had  lit  up  the  cottage,  he  was 
struck  with  the  extreme  thinness  of  this  child,  who 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 73 

was  no  longer  anything  but  skin  and  bone.  When 
the  little  peasant  was  in  bed,  Benassis  tapped  him 
on  the  chest,  listening  to  the  sound  produced  by  his 
fingers;  then,  after  considering  carefully  these  sounds 
of  ill  omen,  he  drew  the  coverings  over  Jacques,  fell 
back  four  steps,  crossed  his  arms,  and  proceeded  to 
examine  him. 

"  How  do  you  feel,  my  little  man?" 

"  Comfortable,  monsieur." 

Benassis  pushed  up  to  the  bed  a  table  with  four 
turned  legs,  looked  for  a  glass  and  a  vial  on  the 
mantelpiece,  and  composed  a  potion  by  mingling 
with  pure  water  a  few  drops  of  a  brown  liquid  con- 
tained in  the  vial,  and  carefully  measured  by  the 
light  of  the  candle  which  Genestas  held  for  him. 

**  Your  mother  is  a  long  time  coming  back." 

"  Monsieur,  she  is  coming,"  said  the  child,  "  I 
hear  her  on  the  path." 

The  doctor  and  the  officer  waited  and  looked 
around  them.  At  the  foot  of  the  bed  was  a  mattress 
of  moss,  without  sheets  or  covering,  on  which  the 
mother  slept,  doubtless  in  all  her  clothes.  Genestas 
indicated  this  bed  with  his  finger  to  Benassis,  who 
nodded  his  head  slowly  as  if  to  say  that  he,  too,  had 
already  admired  this  maternal  devotion.  A  noise  of 
sabots  having  been  heard  in  the  court,  the  doctor 
went  out. 

"  It  will  be  necessary  to  watch  with  Jacques  to- 
night, Mother  Colas.  If  he  tells  you  that  he  is  suf- 
focating, you  will  give  him  a  drink  of  that  which  I 
have  put  in  a  glass  on  the  table.     Be  careful  to  give 


174  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

him  no  more  than  two  or  three  swallows  each  time. 
What  is  in  the  glass  should  last  him  all  night.  Above 
all,  do  not  touch  the  vial,  and  begin  by  changing 
your  child's  linen,  he  is  in  a  perspiration." 

"  I  was  not  able  to  wash  his  shirts  to-day,  my 
dear  monsieur;  1  was  obliged  to  carry  my  hemp  to 
Grenoble  to  get  some  money." 

"  Well,  I  will  send  you  some  shirts." 

"He  is  then  worse,  my  poor  boy.?"  asked  the 
woman. 

"  There  is  not  much  to  be  hoped  for,  Mother 
Colas;  he  has  been  so  imprudent  as  to  sing;  but  do 
not  scold  him,  do  not  be  harsh  with  him,  have  cour- 
age. If  Jacques  complains  too  much,  send  for  me  by 
2i  neighbor.  Adieu!" 
/  The  doctor  called  his  companion,  and  returned 
toward  the  path. 

"That  little  peasant  is  pnsumptive?"  said  Oe- 
nestas  to  him.  "  >  u    '   '• 

"  Mon  Dieu,  yes!"  replied  Benassis.  "Unless 
nature  provides  a  miracle,  science  cannot  save  him. 
Our  professors,  of  the  Ecole  de  Medecine  of  Paris,  fre- 
quently spoke  to  us  of  the  phenomenon  of  which  you 
have  just  been  a  witness.  Certain  maladies  of  this 
kind  produce  in  the  organs  of  the  voice  alterations 
which  momentarily  give  to  invalids  the  faculty  of 
emitting  notes  the  perfection  of  which  cannot  be 
equalled  by  any  virtuoso. — 1  have  made  you  pass  a 
melancholy  day,  monsieur,"  said  the  doctor,  when 
he  was  again  in  the  saddle.  "Everywhere  suifer- 
ing,  and  everywhere  death,  but  everywhere  also 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 75 

resignation.  The  country  people  all  die  philosophi- 
cally: they  suffer,  are  silent,  and  take  to  their  beds 
after  the  manner  of  the  animals.  But  let  us  speak  no 
more  of  death,  and  quicken  the  pace  of  our  horses, — 
we  must  arrive  before  nightfall  in  the  town,  so  that 
you  may  see  the  new  quarter." 

**  And  there  is  a  fire  somewhere,"  said  Genestas, 
pointing  to  a  spot  on  the  mountain  where  flames 
might  be  seen  arising. 

c'^  **  That  fire  is  not  dangerous.  Ourlirne-burner  is 
doubtless  preparing  a  kila  of  lime.  This  new  indus- 
try utilizes  our  heaths." 

The  report  of  a  gun  w2[s  suddenly  heard;  Benassis 
uttered  an  involuntary  exclamation,  and  said,  im- 
patiently: 

•*  If  that  is  Butifer,  we  shall  see  soon  which  of 
us  two  is  the  stronger." 

"  It  was  fired  there,"  said  Genestas,  indicating  a 
wood  of  beech-trees  situated  above  them,  on  the 
mountain.  "  Yes,  up  there;  you  can  trust  to  an 
old  soldier's  ear." 

"Let  us  go  there  immediately!"  exclaimed  Be- 
nassis, who,  aiming  in  a  straight  line  for  the  little 
wood,  made  his  horse  fly  over  the  ditches  and  the 
fields  as  if  it  were  a  steeple-chase,  so  much  did  he 
desire  to  surprise  the  shooter  in  the  very  act. 

"The  man  whom  you  are  looking  for  is  running 
away,"  cried  Genestas,  who  was  following  him 
with  difliculty. 

Benassis  wheeled  his  horse  quickly,  returned  on 
his  steps,  and  the  man  whom  he  was  looking  for 


176  THE   COUISfTRY  DOCTOR 

presently  showed  himself  on  top  of  a  steep  rock,  a 
hundred  feet  above  the  two  horsemen. 

"Butifer,"  cried  Benassis,  seeing  the  long  gun 
which  he  carried,  "  come  down!" 

Butifer  recognized  the  doctor,  and  replied  by  a 
sign,  respectfully  friendly,  which  promised  perfect 
obedience. 

"I  can  imagine,"  said  Genestas,  "that  a  man 
under  the  impulse  of  fear  or  of  some  violent  emotion 
might  be  able  to  climb  up  that  point  of  rock;  but 
how  is  he  going  to  get  down,?" 

"I  am  not  anxious  about  him,"  replied  Benassis, 
"the  goats  might  be  jealous  of  that  rascal.  You 
will  see." 

Accustomed  to  judge  of  the  intrinsic  value  of  men 
by  the  events  of  war,  the  commandant  admired  the 
singular  quickness,  the  admirable  security  of  Buti- 
fer's  movements  while  he  was  descending  the  de- 
clivities of  the  rock  to  the  summit  of  which  he  had 
so  courageously  attained.  The  slender  and  vigor- 
ous body  of  the  hunter  kept  his  equilibrium  grace- 
fully in  every  position  which  the  steepness  of  the 
road  obliged  him  to  take;  he  put  his  foot  on  a  point 
of  rock  more  quietly  than  he  would  have  set  it  on 
a  floor,  so  certain  did  he  seem  of  being  able  to 
maintain  himself  at  need.  He  managed  his  long 
gun  as  if  he  had  only  a  cane  in  his  hand. 

Butifer  was  a  young  man,  of  medium  height,  but 
dry,  thin,  and  nervous,  whose  virile  beauty  struck 
Genestas  when  he  saw  him  near  to  him.  He  evi- 
dently belonged  to  that  class  of  smugglers  who  carry 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 77 

on  their  trade  without  violence,  and  employ  only 
shrewdness  and  patience  to  defraud  the  exchequer. 
He  had  a  masculine  countenance,  browned  by  the 
sun.  His  eyes,  of  a  clear  yellow,  sparkled  like 
those  of  an  eagle,  to  the  beak  of  which  his  thin 
nose,  slightly  curved  at  the  end,  had  much  resem- 
blance. His  cheeks  were  covered  with  down;  his 
mouth,  red,  partly  opened,  revealed  his  teeth  of  a 
dazzling  whiteness.  His  beard,  his  moustache,  his 
reddish  whiskers,  which  he  allowed  to  grow,  and 
which  curled  naturally,  enhanced  still  more  the 
virile  and  indomitable  expression  of  his  counte- 
nance. In  him,  everything  was  strength.  The 
muscles  of  his  hand,  continually  exercised,  had  a 
curious  firmness  and  largeness.  His  chest  was 
wide  and  deep,  and  on  his  forehead  shone  an  un- 
tamed intelligence.  He  had  the  intrepid  and  reso- 
lute, though  quiet,  air  of  a  man  accustomed  to  risk 
his  life,  and  who  has  so  often  proved  his  bodily  or 
intellectual  power  in  perils  of  every  kind  that  he 
no  longer  has  any  doubts  of  himself.  Clothed  in  a 
blouse  torn  by  the  thorns,  he  wore  on  his  feet 
leathern  sandals  attached  by  eel-skin  lacings.  Pan- 
taloons of  blue  canvas,  pieced  and  slashed,  allowed 
his  legs  to  be  seen,  red,  fine,  wiry,  and  nervous  as 
those  of  a  deer. 

**  This  is  the  man  who  in  bygone  days  fired  at  me 
once,"  said  Benassis  to  the  commandant,  in  a  low 
voice.  "  If,  now,  I  should  evince  a  desire  to  be  rid 
of  anyone,  he  would  kill  him  without  hesitation. 
Butifer,"  he  went  on,  addressing  the  poacher,  "  I 


1/8  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

believed  you  truly  a  man  of  honor,  and  I  gave 
my  word,  because  1  had  yours.  My  promise  to  the 
procureur  du  roi  at  Grenoble  was  based  upon  your 
oath  to  hunt  no  more,  to  become  a  respectable  man, 
careful  and  industrious.  It  was  you  who  just  now  fired 
that  shot,  and  you  are  on  the  property  of  the  Comte 
de  Labranchoir.  Aha!  what  if  his  gamekeeper  had 
heard  you,  unlucky  one?  Fortunately  for  you,  I  will 
draw  up  no  proces-verbal ;  you  would  be  guilty  of  a 
second  offence,  and  you  have  no  right  to  carry 
arms!  I  left  you  your  gun  in  consideration  of  your 
attachment  to  that  arm." 

"It  is  a  fine  one,"  said  the  commandant,  recog- 
nizing a  duck-gun  of  Saint-Etienne. 

The  smuggler  looked  up  toward  Genestas  as  if  to 
thank  him  for  this  approbation. 

"  Butifer,"  continued  Benassis,  **  your  conscience 
should  reproach  you.  If  you  take  to  your  old  trade 
again,  you  will  find  yourself  once  more  in  a  park 
enclosed  with  walls;  no  protection  will  then  be  able 
to  save  you  from  the  galleys;  you  will  be  marked, 
branded.  You  will  bring  me  your  gun  this  very 
evening.     I  will  keep  it  for  you." 

Butifer  clasped  the  barrel  of  his  weapon  with  a 
convulsive  movement. 

"You  are  right,  monsieur  le  maire,"  he  said. 
"  I  am  wrong,  I  have  broken  my  ban,  I  am  a  dog. 
My  gun  should  go  to  you,  but  you  will  have  my 
inheritance  in  taking  it  from  me.  The  last  shot 
which  my  mother's  child  will  fire  will  reach  my 
brain. — What  would  you  have!     I  have  done  what 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 79 

you  wished,  I  kept  quiet  during  the  winter;  but,  in 
the  spring,  the  sap  has  started.  I  do  not  know  how 
to  work,  I  have  not  the  heart  to  spend  my  Hfe  in 
fattening  chickens;  1  can  neither  bend  my  back  to 
dig  around  vegetables,  nor  flog  the  air  in  driving  a 
cart,  nor  stop  to  rub  a  horse's  back  in  a  stable; 
must  one,  then,  starve  to  death?  I  only  see  clearly 
up  there,"  he  continued  after  a  pause,  pointing  to 
the  mountains.  "  I  have  been  there  for  a  week. 
I  saw  a  chamois,  and  the  chamois  is  there,"  he 
said,  indicating  the  top  of  the  rock,  "  he  is  at 
your  service!  My  good  Monsieur  Benassis,  leave 
me  my  gun.  Listen,  on  the  word  of  Butifer!  I  will 
leave  the  commune  and  I  will  go  to  the  Alps,  where 
the  chamois  hunters  will  not  say  anything  to  me; 
quite  the  contrary,  they  will  receive  me  with  pleas- 
ure, and  I  shall  die  there  at  the  bottom  of  some 
glacier.  See,  now,  to  speak  frankly,  I  would  rather 
spend  a  year  or  two  living  thus,  among  the  heights, 
without  meeting  either  government,  or  custom-house 
officer,  or  gamekeeper,  or  procureur  du  roi,  than  to 
grovel  a  hundred  years  in  your  bog.  There  will  be 
no  one  but  you  whom  I  shall  regret,  the  others  drive 
me  crazy!  Although  you  are  in  the  right,  at  least 
you  do  not  exterminate  people — " 

"  And  Louise?"  said  Benassis  to  him. 

Butifer  stood  thoughtful. 

"Eh!  my  lad,"  said  Genestas,  "  learn  to  read,  to 
write,  come  to  my  regiment,  mount  a  horse,  become 
a  carabineer.  If  once  the  boot-and-saddle  should 
sound  for  a  somewhat  decent  war,  you  would  see 


l8o  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

that  the  good  God  had  made  you  to  live  in  the 
midst  of  cannon,  of  balls,  of  battles,  and  you  would 
become  a  general." 

"Yes,  if  Napoleon  had  returned,"  replied  Butifer. 

"You  know  our  agreement?"  said  the  doctor  to 
him.  "  On  the  second  infraction,  you  promised 
me  to  become  a  soldier.  1  give  you  six  months 
to  learn  to  write  and  to  read;  then  I  will  find 
some  son  of  a  family  whose  place  you  can  take." 

Butifer  looked  at  the  mountains. 

"Oh!  you  will  not  go  to  the  Alps,"  exclaimed 
Benassis.  "A  man  like  you,  a  man  of  honor,  full 
of  great  qualities,  should  serve  his  country,  com- 
mand a  brigade,  and  not  die  at  the  tail  of  a  chamois. 
The  life  which  you  are  leading  will  conduct  you 
straight  to  the  bagnio.  Your  excessive  labors  com- 
pel you  to  take  long  repose;  in  the  end,  you  will 
contract  the  habits  of  an  idle  life,  which  will  destroy 
in  you  all  ideas  of  order,  which  will  accustom  you  to 
abuse  your  strength,  to  punish  yourself,  and  I  wish, 
in  spite  of  yourself,  to  set  you  on  a  good  road." 

"  I  shall  then  have  to  burst  with  weariness  and 
dulness.?  1  suffocate  when  I  am  in  a  city.  I  can- 
not stay  longer  than  one  day  in  Grenoble  when  I 
take  Louise  there — " 

"We  have  all  of  us  inclinations,  which  we  must 
know  how  to  resist,  or  render  useful  to  our  neighbors. 
But  it  is  late,  I  am  in  a  hurry,  you  will  come  to  see 
me  to-morrow,  bringing  me  your  gun;  we  will  talk 
this  all  over,  my  son.  Adieu!  Sell  your  chamois  in 
Grenoble." 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  l8l 

The  two  horsemen  rode  away. 

"  That  is  what  I  call  a  man,"  said  Genestas. 

"A  man  in  a  bad  way,"  replied  Benassis.  "  But 
what  is  to  be  done?  You  heard  him.  Is  it  not  de- 
plorable to  see  such  fine  qualities  wasted.?  If  an 
enemy  should  invade  France,  Butifer,  at  the  head  of 
a  hundred  young  men,  would  stop  a  division  in  the 
Maurienne  for  a  month;  but,  in  times" of  peace,  he 
can  only  display  his  energy  in  situations  in  which 
the  laws  are  defied.  He  requires  some  power  or 
other  to  vanquish;  when  he  is  not  risking  his  life, 
he  is  struggling  against  society,  he  aids  the  smug- 
glers. That  rascal  crosses  the  Rh6ne,  alone  in  a 
little  boat,  to  carry  shoes  into  Savoy;  he  takes 
refuge  with  his  burden  on  an  inaccessible  peak, 
where  he  can  remain  two  days,  living  on  crusts  of 
bread.  In  short,  he  loves  danger  as  another  loves 
slumber.  Through  tasting  the  pleasures  which  are 
given  by  extreme  sensations,  he  has  come  to  place 
himself  outside  of  ordinary  life.  For  my  part,  I  do 
not  wish  that,  in  following  the  gradual  decline  of 
an  evil  life,  such  a  man  should  become  a  brigand 
and  die  on  a  scaffold.  But  do  you  see,  captain, 
how  our  town  shows  itself?" 

Genestas  perceived  in  the  distance  a  large  cir- 
cular place  planted  with  trees,  in  the  middle  of 
which  was  a  fountain  surrounded  by  poplars.  This 
place  was  enclosed  by  a  sloping  embankment  on 
which  were  three  rows  of  different  trees, — ^first, 
acacias,  then  Japanese  varnish-trees,  and  at  the  top 
of  the  terrace,  young  elms. 


1 82  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  That  is  the  field  on  which  our  fair  is  held,"  said 
Benassis.  "  Then  the  Grande-Rue  begins  with  the 
two  fine  houses  of  which  I  have  spoken  to  you,  that 
of  the  justice  of  the  peace  and  that  of  the  notary." 

They  then  entered  a  large  street  carefully  paved 
with  round  stones,  on  each  side  of  which  were  some 
hundred  new  houses,  almost  all  of  them  separated 
by  gardens.  The  church,  whose  portal  furnished  a 
handsome  end  to  the  perspective,  terminated  this 
street,  midway  in  which  two  others  were  also  newly 
laid  out,  with  several  houses  already  built  upon 
them.  The  mayor's  office,  situated  on  the  public 
place  of  the  church,  was  opposite  to  the  curate's 
house.  As  Benassis  rode  down  this  street,  women, 
children,  and  men,  whose  day's  work  was  ended, 
came  out  of  their  doors;  some  took  off  their  caps  to 
him,  others  said  good-day  to  him,  the  little  children 
uttered  cries  and  danced  around  his  horse,  as  if  the 
good  nature  of  the  animal  was  known  to  them  as 
well  as  that  of  his  master.  It  was  a  quiet  joy, 
which,  like  all  deep  sentiments,  had  its  peculiar 
modesty  and  its  infectious  attraction. 

When  he  saw  this  welcome  accorded  to  the  doctor, 
Genestas  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  physician 
had  been  too  modest  in  the  manner  in  which,  the 
evening  before,  he  had  spoken  of  the  affection  which 
the  inhabitants  of  the  canton  bore  to  him.  It  was, 
indeed,  the  most  gentle  of  royalties,  that  of  which  the 
titles  are  engraved  in  the  hearts  of  the  subjects,  a 
true  royalty,  moreover.  However  powerful  may  be 
the  rays  of  the  glory  or  of  the  power  which  a  man 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  183 

enjoys,  his  soul  soon  comes  to  estimate  justly  the 
feelings  which  any  external  action  procures  for 
him,  and  he  quickly  perceives  his  real  nothingness 
in  finding  no  change,  nothing  new,  nothing  greater, 
in  the  exercise  of  his  physical  powers.  The  kings, 
though  they  possessed  the  whole  earth,  are  con- 
demned, like  all  other  men,  to  live  in  a  little  circle  to 
the  laws  of  which  they  submit,  and  their  happiness 
depends  upon  the  personal  impressions  which  they 
receive.  Now,  Benassis  is  met  everywhere  in  the 
canton  with  obedience  and  friendship  only. 


Ill 


THE   NAPOLEON   OF   THE   PEOPLE 

"You  have  come,  then,  monsieur!"  exclaimed 
Jacquotte.  "  It  is  a  long  time  that  these  messieurs 
have  been  waiting  for  you.  It  is  always  this  way. 
You  make  me  spoil  my  dinner  when  it  should  be 
particularly  good.  Now,  everything  is  rotten  with 
cooking — " 

"Well,  here  we  are,"  replied  Benassis,  smiling. 

The  two  horsemen  dismounted  and  went  into  the 
salon,  where  were  assembled  the  guests  invited  by 
the  doctor. 

"Messieurs,"  said  he,  taking  Genestas  by  the 
hand,  "  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to  you  Monsieur 
Bluteau,  captain  in  the  regiment  of  cavalry  in  garri- 
son at  Grenoble,  an  old  soldier  who  has  promised  me 
to  remain  some  time  among  us." 

Then  addressing  himself  to  Genestas,  he  indicated 
to  him  a  tall,  spare  man,  with  gray  hair  and  clothed  in 
black. 

"  Monsieur,"  he  said  to  him,  "  is  Monsieur  Dufau, 

the  justice  of  the  peace,  of  whom  I  have  already 

spoken  to  you,  and  who  has  so  greatly  contributed 

to  the  prosperity  of  the  commune.     Monsieur,"  he 

(i8s) 


1 86  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

resumed,  presenting  him  to  a  thin,  pale  young  man, 
of  medium  stature,  also  dressed  in  black,  and  who 
wore  glasses,  "Monsieur  is  Monsieur  Tonnelet,  the 
son-in-law  of  Monsieur  Gravier,  and  the  first  notary 
established  in  our  town." 

Then  turning  toward  a  stout  man,  half  peasant, 
half  bourgeois,  with  a  coarse,  pimpled  face,  but  one 
full  of  good  humor: 

"Monsieur,"  said  he,  continuing,  "  is  my  worthy 
deputy,  Monsieur  Cambon,  the  lumber  merchant 
to  whom  I  owe  the  friendly  confidence  which  the 
inhabitants  grant  me.  He  is  one  of  the  creators  of 
the  road  which  you  have  admired.  I  have  no  need," 
added  Benassis,  indicating  the  cure,  "  to  tell  you  the 
profession  of  monsieur.     You  see  a  man  whom  no 

<ne  can  help  loving." 
The  face  of  the  priest  attracted  ihe  soldier's  at- 
tention by  its  expression  of  a  jnoral  beauty  the 
charm  of  which  was  irresistible'X  At  first  glance, 
Monsieur  Janvier's  countenance  'knight  seem  un- 
couth, so  harsh  and  severe  were  its  lines.  His 
slight  figure,  his  emaciation,  his  attitude,  revealed 
great  physical  weakness;  but  his  countenance,  al- 
ways placid,  attested  the  profound  interior  peace  of 
the  Christian  and  the  strength  which  arises  from  the 
chastity  of  the  soul.  His  eyes,  in  which  the  heavens 
seemed  to  be  reflected,  betrayed  that  inextinguish- 
able flame  of  charity  which  consumed  his  heart. 
His  gestures,  rare  but  natural,  were  those  of  a 
modest  man;  his  movements  had  the  modest  sim- 
plicity of  those  of  young  girls.     The  sight  of  him 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  1 87 

inspired  respect,  and  the  vague  desire  of  entering 
into  his  intimacy. 

"Ah!  monsieur  le  maire! — "  he  said,  bowing, 
as  if  to  escape  the  eulogy  which  Benassis  had  pro- 
nounced upon  him. 

The  sound  of  his  voice  stirred  the  heart  of  the 
commandant,  who  was  thrown  into  a  reverie  almost 
religious  by  the  few  insignificant  words  uttered  by 
this  unknown  priest. 

"Messieurs,"  said  Jacquotte,  coming  into  the 
middle  of  the  salon  and  standing  there,  her  fist  on 
her  hip,  "  your  soup  is  on  the  table." 

Upon  the  invitation  of  Benassis,  who  called  each 
one  in  his  turn  to  avoid  the  etiquette  of  precedence, 
the  five  guests  of  the  physician  passed  into  the 
dining-room  and  took  their  seats  at  the  table,  after 
having  heard  the  Benedicite,  which  the  cure  pro- 
nounced without  emphasis  and  in  a  low  voice.  The 
table  was  covered  with  a  cloth  of  that  damask  linen 
invented  under  Henri  IV.  by  the  brothers  Graindorge, 
skilful  manufacturers,  who  have  given  their  name  to 
this  thick  tissue  so  well  known  to  housekeepers. 
This  linen  was  dazzling  in  whiteness  and  smelt  of 
the  thyme  which  Jacquotte  used  in  her  laundry. 
The  service  was  of  white  faience  with  blue  borders, 
in  perfect  preservation.  The  carafes  had  that  an- 
tique octagonal  form  which  the  provinces  alone  pre- 
serve in  our  day.  The  handles  of  the  knives,  all  in 
carved  horn,  represented  curious  figures. 

In  examining  these  objects,  of  a  luxury  ancient 
and   yet   almost   new,    each    one   found    them    in 


l88  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

harmony  with  the  cheerfulness  and  frankness  of  the 
master  of  the  house.  The  attention  of  Genestas 
was  arrested  for  a  moment  by  the  cover  of  the  soup 
tureen  which  was  crowned  by  vegetables  in  relief, 
very  well  colored,  in  the  manner  of  Bernard  Pa- 
lissy,  a  celebrated  artist  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
This  company  did  not  want  for  originality.  The 
vigorous  heads  of  Benassis  and  Genestas  contrasted 
admirably  with  the  apostolic  head  of  Monsieur  Jan- 
vier; in  the  same  manner  as  the  aging  faces  of  the 
justice  of  the  peace  and  the  deputy  mayor  set  off  the 
youthful  countenance  of  the  notary.  Society  seemed 
to  be  represented  by  these  diverse  physiognomies, 
on  which  were  equally  depicted  inward  contentment, 
satisfaction  with  the  present,  and  faith  in  the 
future.  Monsieur  Tonnelet  and  Monsieur  Janvier 
only,  not  far  advanced  in  life,  loved  to  scrutinize 
future  events,  which  they  felt  appertained  to  them, 
whilst  the  other  guests  naturally  preferred  to  bring 
the  conversation  to  the  past ;  but  all  of  them  gravely 
surveyed  human  affairs,  and  their  opinions  re- 
flected a  double  tint  of  melancholy, — one  had  the 
paleness  of  the  evening  twilights,  the  souvenir, 
almost  effaced,  of  joys  that  would  never  be  born 
again;  the  other,  like  the  dawn,  gave  hopes  of  a 
beautiful  day. 

"  You  must  have  had  a  very  fatiguing  day,  mon- 
sieur le  cure.?"  said  Monsieur  Cambon. 

"Yes,  monsieur,"  replied  Monsieur  Janvier;  "the 
burial  of  the  poor  cretin  and  that  of  Father  Pelletier 
took  place  at  different  hours." 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  189 

"  We  shall  now  be  able  to  demolish  the  ruins  of 
the  old  village,"  said  Benassis  to  his  colleague. 
"These  clearings  off  of  the  houses  will  give  us  at 
least  an  arpent  of  meadow-land;  and  the  commune 
will  gain,  moreover,  the  hundred  francs  which  the 
support  of  Chautard,  the  cretin,  cost  us." 

"  We  should  allow  these  hundred  francs  for  three 
years  for  the  construction  of  a  one-arched  bridge  on 
the  road  down  there,  to  cross  the  large  stream,"  said 
Monsieur  Cambon.  "  The  people  of  the  town  and 
of  the  valley  have  adopted  the  custom  of  crossing 
the  land  of  Jean-Franfois  Pastoureau,  and  will,  in 
the  end,  injure  it  in  such  a  manner  as  to  cause  much 
loss  to  that  poor  good  fellow." 

"  Certainly,"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace,  "  that 
money  could  not  be  put  to  a  better  use.  In  my 
opinion,  the  abuse  of  footpaths  is  one  of  the  great- 
est plagues  in  the  country.  The  tenth  of  the  cases 
brought  before  the  courts  of  the  peace  are  caused 
by  unjust  obligations  of  land-owners.  The  rights  of 
property  are  thus  attacked,  almost  with  impunity,  in 
very  many  communes.  The  respect  for  property 
and  respect  for  the  law  are  two  sentiments  too  often 
misunderstood  in  France,  and  which  it  is  very  neces- 
sary to  propagate.  It  seems  to  be  dishonoring  to  a 
great  many  people  to  lend  any  assistance  to  the  law, 
and  the  '  Go  and  get  yourself  hanged  elsewhere ! '  a 
proverbial  phrase  which  seems  to  be  dictated  by  a 
sentiment  of  praiseworthy  generosity,  is  at  bottom 
only  a  hypocritical  formula  which  serves  to  veil 
our  selfishness.     Let  us  admit  it,  we  are  lacking  in 


igo  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

patriotism!  The  true  patriot  is  the  citizen  sufficiently 
penetrated  with  the  importance  of  the  laws  to  cause 
them  to  be  executed,  even  at  his  own  risks  and 
peril.  To  allow  a  malefactor  to  go  in  peace,  is  not 
that  to  render  ourselves  guilty  of  his  future  crimes?" 

"All  things  are  related  to  each  other,"  said  Be- 
nassis.  "  If  the  mayors  kept  their  roads  better, 
there  would  not  be  so  many  footpaths.  Then,  if  the 
municipal  councillors  were  better  informed,  they 
would  sustain  the  proprietor  and  the  mayor  when 
these  were  opposed  to  the  establishment  of  an  unjust 
obligation,  like  this;  all  would  make  the  ignorant 
people  comprehend  that  the  chateau,  the  field,  the 
thatched  cottage,  the  tree,  are  equally  sacred,  and 
that  the  RIGHT  is  neither  augmented  nor  enfeebled  by 
the  differing  values  of  property.  But  such  ameliora- 
tions cannot  be  obtained  quickly;  they  are  related 
principally  to  the  morality  of  the  population,  which 
we  cannot  reform  completely  without  the  efficacious 
intervention  of  the  cures.  This  is  not  addressed  to 
you,  Monsieur  Janvier." 

"Neither  do  I  take  it  for  myself,"  replied  the 
cure,  laughing.  "  Have  I  not  endeavored  to  make 
the  dogmas  of  the  Catholic  religion  coincide  with 
your  administrative  views  ?  Thus  I  have  often 
tried,  in  my  pastoral  instructions  regarding  theft,  to 
inculcate  in  the  inhabitants  of  the  parish  the  same 
ideas  which  you  have  just  set  forth  concerning  the 
right.  In  fact,  God  does  not  estimate  the  theft 
according  to  the  value  of  the  thing  stolen,  he  judges 
the  thief.     Such  was  the  meaning  of  the  parables 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  191 

which  I  have  endeavored  to  adapt  to  the  intelligence 
of  my  parishioners." 

"You  have  succeeded,  monsieur  le  cure,"  said 
Cambon.  "  I  am  able  to  judge  of  the  changes  which 
you  have  wrought  in  their  minds  by  comparing  the 
present  state  of  the  commune  with  its  former  condi- 
tion. It  is  certain  that  there  are  but  few  cantons  in 
which  the  workmen  are  as  scrupulous  as  are  our  own 
concerning  the  fixed  hours  of  labor.  The  cattle  are 
well  looked  after,  and  do  no  damage  unless  acciden- 
tally. The  woods  are  respected.  In  short,  you  have 
caused  our  peasants  to  understand  very  well  that  the 
leisure  of  the  rich  is  the  recompense  of  an  economi- 
cal and  industrious  life." 

"Then,"  said  Genestas,  "you  should  be  suffi- 
ciently well  content  with  your  foot-soldiers,  monsieur 
le  cure.?" 

"Monsieur  le  capitaine,"  replied  the  priest,  "it 
is  not  worth  while  to  expect  to  find  angels  anywhere, 
here  below.  Everywhere  where  there  is  poverty 
there  is  suffering.  Suffering  and  poverty  are  living 
forces  which  have  their  abuses,  as  power  has  its 
own.  When  the  peasants  have  walked  two  leagues 
to  go  to  their  work,  and  are  returning  very  tired  in 
the  evening,  if  they  see  the  hunters  crossing  the 
fields  and  the  meadows  in  order  to  reach  their 
dinner-table  sooner,  do  you  believe  that  they  will 
have  any  scruples  in  imitating  them.?  Among  those 
who  thus  beat  down  the  path  of  which  these  mes- 
sieurs were  just  complaining,  which  is  the  delin- 
quent, he  who  works  or  he  who  amuses  himself  ? 


192  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

To-day,  the  rich  and  the  poor  give  us  as  much 
trouble  the  one  as  the  other.  Faith,  like  power, 
should  always  descend  from  the  heights,  either 
heavenly  or  social;  and  certainly,  in  our  days,  the 
educated  classes  have  less  faith  than  the  people,  to 
whom  God  has  promised  heaven  in  recompense  of 
their  ills  patiently  supported. 

"  While  always  submitting  to  the  ecclesiastical 
discipline  and  to  the  ideas  of  my  superiors,  1  think 
that,  for  a  long  time  to  come,  we  should  be  less  ex- 
acting concerning  questions  of  worship,  and  en- 
deavor to  reanimate  the  religious  sentiment  in  the 
heart  of  the  middle  regions  of  the  social  body,  there 
where  they  discuss  Christianity  instead  of  practising 
its  precepts.  The  philosophism  of  the  rich  has  been 
a  very  fatal  example  for  the  poor,  and  has  caused 
too  long  interregnums  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Whatever  we  may  gain  to-day  over  our  flock  depends 
entirely  upon  our  personal  influence;  is  it  not  a  mis- 
fortune that  the  religious  faith  of  a  commune  should 
be  due  to  the  consideration  which  a  man  obtains  in 
it.?  When  Christianity  shall  have  fertilized  anew 
the  social  order,  by  impregnating  all  classes  with  its 
conservative  doctrines,  its  worship  will  no  longer  be 
called  in  question.  The  worship  of  a  religion  is  its 
outward  form,  societies  subsist  only  by  their  form. 
To  you,  the  flags;  to  us,  the  cross — " 

"  Monsieur  le  cure,  I  should  much  like  to  know," 
said  Genestas,  interrupting  Monsieur  Janvier,  "  why 
you  prevent  these  poor  people  from  amusing  them- 
selves by  dancing  on  Sundays?" 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  193 

"Monsieur  le  capitaine,"  replied  the  cure,  "we 
do  not  hate  the  dance  in  itself ;  we  proscribe  it  as 
one  cause  of  the  immorality  which  troubles  the 
peace  and  corrupts  the  manners  of  the  country.  To 
purify  the  family  spirit,  to  maintain  the  sanctity  of 
its  bonds,  is  not  that  to  cut  down  the  evil  at  its 
roots?" 

"I  am  aware,"  said  Monsieur  Tonnelet,  "  that 
some  disorders  are  committed  in  every  canton,  but 
in  ours  they  are  becoming  rare.  If  a  number  of  our 
peasants  have  no  great  scruples  about  taking  from 
a  neighbor  a  furrow  of  earth  in  ploughing,  or 
about  going  to  cut  some  osiers  on  the  land  of 
another  when  they  need  them,  these  are  peccadillos 
in  comparison  with  the  sins  of  the  people  of  the 
cities.  Therefore,  I  consider  the  peasants  of  this 
valley  to  be  very  religious." 

"Oh!  religious,"  said  the  cure,  smiling;  "fanati- 
cism is  not  to  be  feared  here." 

"But,  monsieur  le  cure,"  objected  Cambon,  "if 
the  townspeople  went  to  mass  every  mornihg,  if  they 
confessed  to  you  every  week,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  cultivate  the  fields,  and  three  priests  would  not 
suffice  for  the  task — " 

"Monsieur,"  replied  the  cure,  "to  work  is  to 
pray.  Practical  action  implies  the  knowledge  of  the 
religious  principles  which  give  life  to  societies." 

"And  what  do  you  make,  then,  of  patriotism?" 
asked  Genestas. 

"Patriotism,"  replied  the  cure,  gravely,  "in- 
spires only  passing  sentiments,  religion  renders  them 
13 


194  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

durable.  Patriotism  is  a  momentary  forgetfuiness 
of  the  personal  interest,  whilst  Christianity  is  a 
complete  system  of  opposition  to  the  depraved  ten- 
dencies of  mankind." 

"  However,  monsieur,  during  the  wars  of  the 
Revolution,  patriotism — " 

"Yes,  during  the  Revolution  we  did  marvels," 
said  Benassis,  interrupting  Genestas;  "  but  twenty 
years  later,  in  1814,  our  patriotism  was  already  dead; 
whilst  France  and  Europe  threw  themselves  upon 
Asia  a  dozen  times  in  a  hundred  years,  urged  by  a 
religious  sentiment." 

"  Perhaps,"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace,  "it  is 
easy  to  come  to  an  agreement  concerning  the  mate- 
rial interests  which  give  rise  to  the  combats  of  peo- 
ple against  people;  whilst  the  wars  undertaken  to 
maintain  dogmas,  the  object  of  which  is  never  pre- 
cisely defined,  are  necessarily  interminable." 

"Well,  monsieur,  are  you  not  serving  the  fish.'" 
said  Jacquotte,  who,  aided  by  Nicolle,  had  carried 
away  the  plates. 

Faithful  to  her  usual  custom,  the  cook  brought  in 
each  dish,  one  after  the  other,  a  custom  which  has 
the  inconvenience  of  obliging  the  gourmands  to  eat  a 
great  deal,  and  of  causing  the  best  things  to  be  neg- 
lected by  the  temperate  ones  whose  appetite  is  satis- 
fied by  the  first  courses. 

"  Oh!  monsieur,"  said  the  priest  to  the  justice  of 
the  peace,  "how  can  you  assert  that  the  wars  of 
religion  have  no  precise  aim?  Formerly,  religion 
was  a  bond  so   powerful  in  all  societies  that  the 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  195 

material  interests  could  not  be  separated  from  the 
religious  questions.  Hence  every  soldier  knew  very- 
well  for  what  he  fought — " 

"  If  there  has  been  so  much  fighting  for  religion," 
said  Genestas,  "  it  must  be  that  God  has  built  the 
edifice  very  imperfectly.  Should  not  a  divine  insti- 
tution strike  all  men  by  its  characteristics  of  truth .^" 

All  the  guests  looked  at  the  cure. 

"Messieurs,"  said  Monsieur  Janvier,  "religion  is 
felt,  and  is  not  defined.  We  are  judges  neither  of 
the  means  nor  of  the  end  of  the  All-Powerful." 

"Then,  according  to  you,  it  is  necessary  to  be- 
lieve in  all  your  salaams.?"  said  Genestas,  with  the 
cheerful  irreverence  of  a  soldier  who  has  never 
thought  of  God. 

"Monsieur,"  replied  the  priest,  gravely,  "the 
Catholic  religion  puts  an  end,  better  than  any  other, 
to  all  human  anxieties;  but  if  it  should  not  be  so, 
I  would  ask  you  what  you  risk  in  believing  in  its 
truths?" 

"  Not  much,"  said  Genestas. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  not  risk  in  not  believing  at 
all?  But,  monsieur,  let  us  speak  of  the  terrestrial 
interests  which  touch  you  the  nearest.  See  how  the 
finger  of  God  is  strongly  impressed  upon  human 
things  by  touching  them  through  the  hand  of  his 
vicar.  Men  have  lost  a  great  deal  by  departing 
from  the  paths  traced  by  Christianity.  The  Church, 
of  which  few  people  think  to  read  the  history,  and 
which  is  judged  by  certain  erroneous  opinions 
designedly  spread   among  the  people,  has  offered 


196  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

the  perfect  model  of  government  which  men  are 
seeking  to  establish  to-day.  The  principle  of  elec- 
tion has  made  of  it  for  a  long  time  a  great  political 
power.  There  was  not,  formerly,  a  single  religious 
institution  which  was  not  based  upon  liberty,  upon 
equality.  All  possible  means  co-operated  in  this 
work.  The  principal  of  a  college,  the  abbe,  the 
bishop,  the  general  of  the  order,  the  Pope,  were  then 
chosen  conscientiously,  according  to  the  needs  of  the 
Church;  they  expressed  its  idea, — ^therefore  the 
most  blind  obedience  was  due  them.  I  will  not 
dwell  upon  the  social  benefits  of  this  idea  which 
has  made  the  modern  nations,  inspired  so  many 
poems,  cathedrals,  statues,  paintings,  and  musical 
compositions,  to  call  your  attention  only  to  the  fact 
that  your  popular  elections,  the  jury,  and  the  two 
Chambers  have  taken  their  root  in  the  provincial 
and  oecumenical  councils,  in  the  episcopate  and  the 
college  of  cardinals;  with  this  difference  nearly,  that 
the  present  philosophical  conceptions  of  civilization 
seem  to  me  to  pale  before  the  sublime  and  divine  idea 
of  the  Catholic  communion,  an  image  of  a  universal 
social  communion,  accomplished  by  the  Word  and  by 
the  act,  reunited  in  the  religious  dogma.  It  will  be 
difficult  for  the  new  political  systems,  however  per- 
fect they  may  be  supposed,  to  produce  anew  those 
marvels  known  in  the  ages  in  which  the  Church 
sustained  human  intelligence." 

"Why?"  said  Genestas. 

"  In  the  first  place,  because  the  election,  in  order 
to  become  a  principle,  demands  among  the  electors 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  197 

an  absolute  equality, — ^they  should  be  equal  quanti- 
ties, to  make  use  of  a  geometrical  expression,  some- 
thing which  modern  politics  will  never  obtain.  Then, 
the  great  things  of  social  existence  are  produced 
only  by  the  power  of  sentiments,  which  alone  can 
bring  men  together,  and  the  modern  philosophism 
has  founded  the  laws  on  the  personal  interest,  which 
tends  to  isolate  them.  Formerly,  more  than  to-day, 
there  were  to  be  met  with,  among  the  nations,  men 
generously  animated  by  a  maternal  sense  of  the 
unrecognized  rights,  the  sufferings  of  the  masses. 
Thus  the  priest,  a  child  of  the  middle  classes,  was 
opposed  to  the  material  force,  and  he  defended  the 
people  against  their  enemies.  The  Church  has 
acquired  territorial  possessions,  and  her  temporal 
interests,  which  would  seem  to  necessarily  consoli- 
date her,  have  ended  by  enfeebling  her  action.  In 
fact,  when  the  priest  has  privileged  property,  he 
seems  to  be  an  oppressor;  when  the  State  pays  him, 
he  is  a  functionary,  he  owes  his  time,  his  heart,  his 
life;  the  citizens  make  his  virtues  his  duty,  and  his 
benevolence,  withered  in  the  principle  of  free  will, 
dries  up  in  his  heart.  But,  when  the  priest  is  poor, 
when  he  is  a  priest  voluntarily,  without  any  other 
support  than  God,  without  other  fortune  than  the 
heart  of  the  faithful,  he  becomes  again  the  mission- 
ary to  America,  he  institutes  himself  an  apostle,  he 
is  the  prince  of  good.  In  short,  he  reigns  only  by 
destitution  and  he  succumbs  through  opulence." 

Monsieur  Janvier  had  secured  the  general  atten- 
tion.    The  guests  were  silent  while  reflecting  upon 


198  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

these  words  so  novel  in  the  mouth  of  a  simple 
cure. 

"  Monsieur  Janvier,  in  the  midst  of  the  truths 
which  you  have  expressed,  there  is  to  be  met  with  a 
grave  error,"  said  Benassis.  "  I  do  not  like,  as  you 
know,  to  discuss  the  general  interests  brought  into 
question  by  writers  and  by  the  modern  authorities. 
,  In  my  opinion,  a  man  who  conceives  a  political  system 
'  should,  if  he  feel  in  himself  the  strength  to  apply  it, 
be  silent,  seize  the  power  and  act;  but,  if  he  remain 
in  the  happy  obscurity  of  a  simple  citizen,  is  it  not 
folly  to  endeavor  to  convert  the  masses  only  by  indi- 
vidual discussions.?  Nevertheless,  I  am  going  to  com- 
bat you,  my  dear  pastor,  because  here  I  am  addressing 
myself  to  worthy  men,  accustomed  to  put  their  lights 
together  in  order  to  seek  the  truth  in  everything.  My 
thoughts  may  appear  strange  to  you,  but  they  are 
the  fruit  of  the  reflections  which  have  been  inspired 
in  me  by  the  catastrophes  of  our  last  forty  years. 

"  Universal  suffrage,  which  is  demanded  to-day 
by  those  belonging  to  the  opposition  which  is  called 
constitutional,  was  an  excellent  principle  in  the 
Church,  because,  as  you  have  just  observed,  dear 
pastor,  the  individuals  there  were  all  informed,  dis- 
ciplined by  the  religious  sentiment,  imbued  with  the 
same  system,  knowing  very  well  whaMhey  wished 
and  whither  they  were  going.  But  the  triumph  of 
the  ideas  in  aid  of  which  modern  liberalism  impru- 
dently makes  war  on  the  prosperous  government  of 
the  Bourbons  would  be  the  ruin  of  France  and  of 
the  liberals  themselves.     The  chiefs  of   the   Left 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  199 

know  it  well.  For  them,  this  contest  is  a  simple 
question  of  power.  If,  which  God  forbid,  the  bour- 
geoisie, under  the  banners  of  the  opposition,  should 
succeed  in  beating  down  the  social  superiorities 
against  which  their  vanity  protests,  this  triumph 
would  be  immediately  followed  by  a  combat  sus- 
tained by  the  bourgeoisie  against  the  people,  which, 
later,  would  see  in  them  a  sort  of  nobility,  rather 
mean,  it  is  true,  but  of  which  the  fortunes  and  the 
privileges  would  be  to  them  all  the  more  odious  that 
they  felt  them  so  much  the  nearer.  In  this  combat, 
society,  I  do  not  say  the  nation,  would  perish  again, 
because  the  triumph — always  momentary — of  the 
suffering  masses  implies  the  greatest  disorders. 
This  combat  would  be  furious,  without  truce,  for  it 
would  arise  from  the  discord,  instinctive  or  acquired, 
between  the  electors,  of  whom  the  portion  the  least 
enlightened  but  the  most  numerous  would  get  the 
better  of  their  social  superiors  in  a  system  in  which 
suffrages  count  and  are  not  weighed, 

"  It  follows  from  this  that  a  government  is  never 
more  strongly  organized,  consequently  more  perfect, 
than  when  it  is  established  for  the  defence  of  a  more 
restricted  privilege.  That  which  I  call  at  this  mo- 
ment a  privilege  is  not  one  of  those  rights  formerly 
unjustly  conceded  to  certain  persons  to  the  detriment 
of  all;  no,  it  expresses  more  particularly  that  social 
circle  to  which  the  evolutions  of  power  are  restricted. 
Power  is,  in  some  sort,  the  heart  of  a  State.  Now, 
in  all  her  creations.  Nature  has  restrained  the  vital 
principle  in  order  to  give  it  more  elasticity, — ^thus  it 


200  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

is  with  the  body  politic.  I  will  explain  my  idea  by 
examples.  We  will  admit  in  France  a  hundred 
peers,  they  will  cause  only  a  hundred  irritations. 
Abolish  the  peerage,  all  the  wealthy  classes  become 
privileged;  instead  of  a  hundred,  you  will  have  ten 
thousand  of  them,  and  you  will  have  enlarged  the 
wound  of  social  inequalities.  In  fact,  for  the  people, 
the  right  of  living  without  working  alone  constitutes 
a  privilege.  In  their  eyes,  he  who  consumes  with- 
out producing  is  a  spoiler.  They  insist  upon  visible 
works,  and  take  no  account  of  intellectual  produc- 
tions, which  most  enrich  them.  Therefore,  in  mul- 
tiplying the  irritations,  you  extend  the  combat  to  all 
points  of  the  social  body,  instead  of  restraining  it 
within  a  narrow  circle.  When  the  attack  and  the 
resistance  are  general,  the  ruin  of  a  country  is  im- 
minent. There  will  always  be  fewer  rich  than  poor; 
hence  the  victory  will  be  to  the  latter  as  soon  as  the 
contest  becomes  material.  History  comes  to  the 
support  of  my  principle.  The  Roman  republic  owed 
the  conquest  of  the  world  to  the  constitution  of  the 
senatorial  privilege.  The  senate  maintained  fixed 
the  idea  of  power.  But,  when  the  equestrian  order 
and  the  new  men  had  extended  the  action  of  the 
government  by  enlarging  the  patriciate,  the  public 
State  was  lost.  In  spite  of  Sylla,  and  after  Caesar, 
Tiberius  made  of  it  the  Roman  empire,  a  system  in 
which  the  power,  being  concentrated  in  the  hands  of 
a  single  man,  gave  several  centuries  more  to  this 
great  domination.  The  emperor  was  no  longer  in 
Rome  when  the  Eternal  City  fell  before  the  barbarians. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  201 

"  When  our  soil  was  conquered,  the  Franks,  who 
divided  it  among  themselves,  invented  the  feudal 
privilege  in  order  to  guarantee  to  themselves  their 
individual  possessions.  The  hundred  or  the  thou- 
sand chiefs  who  possessed  the  country  established 
their  institutions  with  the  object  of  defending  the 
rights  acquired  by  conquest.  Thus  feudalism  endured 
so  long  as  the  privilege  was  restricted.  But,  when 
the  men  of  this  nation,  the  true  translation  of  the 
word  'gentlemen,'  instead  of  being  five  hundred, 
were  fifty  thousand,  there  was  a  revolution.  Too 
much  extended,  the  action  of  their  power  was  with- 
out elasticity  or  force,  and  found  itself,  moreover, 
without  defence  against  the  enfranchisement  of 
money  and  of  thought,  which  it  had  not  foreseen. 
Then,  the  triumph  of  the  bourgeoisie  over  the 
monarchical  system  having  for  its  object  the  aug- 
mentation in  the  eyes  of  the  people  of  the  number 
of  the  privileged,  the  triumph  of  the  people  over  the 
bourgeoisie  would  be  the  inevitable  effect  of  this 
change.  If  this  perturbation  comes  to  pass,  it  will 
have  for  its  means  of  action  the  right  of  suffrage, 
extended  without  limit  to  the  masses.  Who  votes, 
discusses.  Powers  discussed  do  not  exist.  Can 
you  imagine  a  society  without  power  1  No.  Well, 
who  says  power,  says  strength.  Strength  should 
repose  upon  the  things  determined. 

"  Such  are  the  reasons  which  have  led  me  to  think 
that  the  principle  of  election  is  one  of  the  most  fatal 
to  the  existence  of  modern  governments.  Certainly, 
I  think  I  have  sufficiently  well  proven  my  attachment 


202  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

to  the  poor  and  suffering  class.  I  cannot  be  ac- 
cused of  wishing  its  misfortune;  but,  while  still 
admiring  the  industrious  life  which  it  leads,  sublime 
in  patience  and  in  resignation,  I  declare  it  to  be^in- 
capable  of  participating  in  the  government./The 
j^*  proletarians  seem  to  me  to  be  the  minors  of  a  nation, 

.and  should  always  remain  in  a  state  of  tutelage. 
^  Thus,  in  my  opinion,  messieurs,  the  word  election  is 
likely  to  cause  as  much  damage  as  have  done  the 
words  conscience  and  liberty,  ill  comprehended,  ill 
defined,  and  thrown  to  the  people  as  symbols  of 
revolt  and  orders  for  destruction.  The  tutelage  of 
the  masses  seems  to  me,  then,  to  be  a  thing  just  and 
necessary  to  the  sustaining  of  society." 

"This  system  is  so  directly  at  variance  with  all 
our  ideas  of  to-day,  that  we  have  somewhat  the 
right  to  ask  you  your  reasons,"  said  Genestas, 
interrupting  the  doctor. 

"Willingly,  captain." 

"What  is  it,  then,  that  our  master  is  saying.?" 
exclaimed  Jacquotte,  as  she  re-entered  her  kitchen. 
"  There  is  that  poor  dear  man  advising  them  to 
crush  the  people!  and  they  are  listening  to  him — " 

"  I  should  never  have  thought  that  of  Monsieur 
Benassis,"  replied  Nicolle. 

"If  I  advocate  vigorous  laws  to  repress  the 
ignorant  masses,"  resumed  the  doctor,  after  a  slight 
pause,  "  I  desire  that  the  social  system  should  have 
a  weak  and  yielding  network  through  which  may 
rise  above  the  crowd  everyone  who  wills  it  and  who 
is  conscious  of  the  faculties  which  will  elevate  him 


y 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  203 

toward  the  superior  classes.  All  power  tends  to  its 
own  preservation.  In  order  to  live,  to-day  as  for- 
merly, governments  should  assimilate  the  strong  men, 
taking  them  wherever  they  are  to  be  found,  in  order 
to  make  of  them  their  defenders,  and  to  take  away 
from  the  masses  the  energetic  individuals  who  cause 
them  to  rise  in  revolt.  By  offering  to  public  am- 
bition careers  at  once  arduous  and  easy,  arduous  to 
the  feeble  and  vacillating,  easy  to  the  determined 
wills,  a  State  forestalls  the  revolutions  which  are 
caused  by  the  restrictions  placed  upon  the  rise  of 
real  superiority  toward  its  own  leveL  Our  for^TA 
years  of  torment  should  have  proved  to^n  sjensible 
"man  that  eminence  is  a  consequence  of  social  order. 
It  is  of  three  kinds,  and  incontestable, — erninence  of 
thought,  political  eminence,  and  eminence  of  fortune. 
Is  this  not  the  art,  the  power  and  the  wealth,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  principle,  the  means  and  the 
result? 

"  Now,  as,  supposing  an  even  start,  a  tabula  rasa, 
the  social  unities  perfectly  equalized,  the  births  in 
the  same  proportion,  and  giving  to  each  family  an 
equal  portion  of  land,  you  would  very  soon  find 
again  all  the  irregularities  of  fortune  now  existing, 
it  results  from  this  very  evident  truth  that  eminence 
of  fortune,  of  thought,  and  of  power  is  a  fact  to  be 
reckoned  with,  a  fact  that  the  masses  will  always 
consider  as  oppressive,  seeing  privileges  in  rights 
the  most  justly  acquired.  The  social  contract,  start- 
ing from  this  base,  will  be  then  a  perpetual  compact 
between  those  who  possess  against  those  who  do 


i 


204  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

not  possess.  In  accord  with  this  principle,  the  laws 
will  be  made  by  those  whom  they  profit,  for  they 
will  necessarily  have  the  instinct  of  their  own 
preservation  and  foresee  their  own  dangers.  They 
are  more  interested  in  the  tranquillity  of  the  masses 
than  are  the  masses  themselves.  The  people  re- 
quire a  happiness  ready-made.  In  considering  so- 
ciety from  this  point  of  view,  if  you  view  it  in  its 
entirety,  you  will  soon  come  to  recognize  with  me 
that  the  right  of  election  should  be  exercised  only  by 
men  who  possess  fortune,  power,  or  intelligence,  and 
you  will  also  recognize  that  their  representatives 
should  have  only  extremely  restricted  functions. 

"The  legislator,  messieurs,  should  be  superior  to 
his  age.  He  verifies  the  tendency  of  the  general 
errors,  and  specifies  the  points  toward  which  the 
ideas  of  a  nation  tend;  he  labors,  then,  more  for  the 
future  than  for  the  present,  more  for  the  generation 
which  is  growing  up  than  for  that  which  is  passing 
away.  Now,  if  you  call  on  the  masses  to  make  the 
laws,  can  the  masses  rise  superior  to  themselves.? 
No.  The  more  faithfully  the  assembly  represents 
the  opinions  of  the  crowd,  the  less  understanding 
will  it  have  of  government,  the  less  elevated  will  be 
its  views,  the  less  precise,  the  more  vacillating  will 
be  its  legislation,  for  the  multitude  is,  in  France 
especially,  and  will  be  always,  only  a  multitude. 
Law  carries  with  it  a  submission  to  rules;  every 
rule  is  in  opposition  to  natural  customs,  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  individual;  will  the  masses  support  laws 
against  themselves.?     No.     The  tendency  of    the 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  205 

• 

laws  should  frequently  be  contrary  to  the  tenden- 
cies of  manners.  To  mould  the  laws  upon  the 
general  manners  and  customs,  would  that  not  be  to 
give,  in  Spain,  prizes  of  encouragement  to  religious 
intolerance,  to  slothfulness;  in  England,  to  the  mer- 
cantile spirit;  in  Italy,  to  the  love  of  the  arts  des- 
tined to  express  society,  but  which  cannot  be  all  of 
society;  in  Germany,  to  classifications  of  rank;  in 
France,  to  the  spirit  of  levity,  to  the  sway  of  ideas, 
to  the  facility  of  dividing  among  ourselves  into  fac- 
tions which  have  always  rent  us?  What  is  it  that 
has  happened  within  the  more  than  forty  years  since 
the  electoral  colleges  began  to  lay  their  hands  upon 
the  laws? — we  have  forty  thousand  laws!  A  people 
who  have  forty  thousand  laws  have  no  law.  Can 
Tive  hundred  mediocre  intelligences,— ^Ta  century 
has  never  more  than  a  hundred  great  intelligences 
at  its  service, — can  they  have  the  strength  to  rise  to 
these  considerations?  No.  Men  constantly  issuing 
from  five  hundred  different  localities  will  never  com- 
prehend in  the  same  manner  the  spirit  of  the  law, 
and  the  law  should  be  a  unity.  But  I  go  further. 
Sooner  or  later,  an  assembly  falls  under  the  rule  of 
one  man,  and,  instead  of  having  dynasties  of  kings, 
you  have  the  changing  and  costly  dynasties  of  prime 
ministers.  At  the  end  of  all  deliberations  will  be 
found  Mirabeau,  Danton,  Robespierre,  or  Napoleon, — 
pro-consuls  or  an  emperor. 

"  In  fact,  it  requires  a  determinate  force  to  lift  a  de- 
terminate weight;  this  force  may  be  distributed  over 
a  greater  or  less  number  of  levers;   but  the  force 


206  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

should  be  definitely  proportioned  to  the  weight, — 
here,  the  weight  is  the  ignorant  and  suffering  mass 
which  constitutes  the  first  layer  of  all  societies. 
Power,  being  repressive  in  its  nature,  has  need  of  a 
great  concentration  in  order  to  oppose  an  equal  re- 
sistance to  the  popular  movement.  This  is  the  ap- 
plication of  the  principle  which  I  have  just  developed 
in  speaking  to  you  of  the  restriction  of  the  privilege 
of  participating  in  the  government.  If  you  admit  to 
this  privilege  men  of  talent,  they  will  submit  to  this 
natural  law  and  cause  the  country  to  submit  to  it;  if 
you  assemble  mediocre  men,  they  will  be  vanquished 
sooner  or  later  by  the  superior  genius, — ^the  talented 
deputy  is  conscious  of  the  right  of  the  State,  the 
mediocre  deputy  makes  a  bargain  with  power.  In^ 
short,  an  assembly  yields^ to  an  idea,  as  did  the  Con- 
"ventfon  during  the  Terror; _to_^  pnwfr^  as  did  the 
""Corps  Legislatif  under  Napoleon;  to  a  system,  or 
""^  money,  as  to-day.  The  republican  assembly, 
""■  dreamed  of  by  some  intelligent  minds,  is  impossible; 
those  who  wish  for  it  are  either  dupes  ready-made, 
or  future  tyrants.  A  deliberating  assembly  which 
discusses  the  dangers  of  a  nation,  when  it  is  neces- 
sary to  make  it  act,  does  not  that  seem  to  you  ridic- 
ulous.? That  the  people  should  have  representatives 
charged  with  the  duty  of  granting  or  refusing  taxes, 
this  is  something  just,  which  has  existed  in  all 
times,  under  the  most  cruel  tyrant  as  under  the  most 
gracious  prince.  Money  is  unseizable;  taxation  has, 
moreover,  natural  limits,  beyond  which  a  nation  rises 
to  refuse,  or  lies  down  to  die.     Should  this  body, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  207 

elective  and  changing  according  to  the  needs,  like 
the  ideas  which  it  represents,  set  itself  in  opposition 
to  yielding  the  obedience  of  all  to  a  bad  law,  every- 
thing is  well.  But  suppose  that  five  hundred  men, 
gathered  from  all  the  corners  of  an  empire,  should 
make  a  good  law,  would  not  that  be  an  ill  jest  which 
the  people  would  expiate  sooner  or  later  ?  They  then 
change  tyrants,  that  is  all. 

"  Power,  the  law,  should,  then,  be  the  work  of  one 
only,  who,  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  is  obliged 
to  submit  his  actions  constantly  to  the  general  appro- 
bation. But  the  restrictions  which  are  applied  to 
the  exercise  of  power,  whether  of  one  man  only,  or 
of  several,  or  of  the  multitude,  can  be  found  only 
in  the  religious  institutions  of  a  people.  Religion  is 
the  sole  counter-weight  truly  efficacious  against  the 
abuses  of  supreme  power.  If  the  religious  senti- 
ment perish  in  a  nation,  it  becomes  seditious  through 
principle,  and  the  prince  transforms  himself  into  a 
tyrant  through  necessity.  The  Chambers,  which 
are  interposed  between  the  sovereign  and  his  sub- 
jects, are  only  palliatives  to  these  two  tendencies. 
The  assemblies,  according  to  what  I  have  just  said, 
become  accomplices  either  of  the  insurrection  or  of 
the  tyranny.  Nevertheless,  the  government  of  one 
man,  toward  which  I  incline,  is  not  good  of  an  abso- 
lute goodness;  for  political  results  will  depend  eter- 
nally upon  manners  and  beliefs.  If  a  nation  has 
grown  old,  if  philosophism  and  the  spirit  of  contro- 
versy have  corrupted  it  even  to  the  marrow  of  its 
bones,   that   nation    is  drifting  toward   despotism, 


2o8  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

notwithstanding  all  the  forms  of  liberty;  in  the  same 
manner  that  an  intelligent  people  are  nearly  always 
able  to  find  liberty  under  the  forms  of  despotism. 
From  all  this  there  results  the  necessity  of  a  great 
restriction  in  the  electoral  rights,  the  necessity  of  a 
strong  authority,  the  necessity  of  a  powerful  religion 
which  will  render  the  rich  the  friend  of  the  poor,  and 
command  from  the  poor  an  entire  resignation. 

"  Finally,  there  is  an  urgent  need  of  reducing  the 
assemblies  to  the  consideration  only  of  questions  of 
taxation  and  of  the  registry  of  the  laws,  in  taking 
away  from  them  the  direct  framing  of  them.  I  am 
aware  that  there  are  other  ideas  which  exist  in  sev- 
eral heads.  To-day,  as  formerly,  there  are  to  be 
met  with  minds  that  are  eager  to  search  for  the  best, 
and  who  would  have  societies  more  sagely  organized 
than  they  actually  are.  But  innovations  which  tend 
to  bring  about  complete  social  overturnings  have 
need  of  a  universal  sanction.  Innovators  should 
have  patience.  When  I  measure  the  time  which 
was  required  for  the  establishment  of  Christianity, 
a  moral  revolution  which  was  necessarily  purely 
pacific,  I  shudder  in  contemplating  the  calamities  of 
a  revolution  in  material  interests,  and  I  conclude  in 
favor  of  the  maintenance  of  existing  institutions. 
To  each  one  his  own  opinion,  Christianity  has  said;  to 
each  one  his  own  field,  has  said  the  modern  law.  The 
modern  law  has  come  into  harmony  with  Christianity. 
To  each  one  his  own  opinion,  is  the  consecration  of 
the  rights  of  intelligence;  to  each  one  his  own  field, 
is  the  consecration  of  property  acquired  by  labor. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  209 

From  this,  our  society.  Nature  has  based  human 
life  upon  the  sentiment  of  individual  conservation; 
social  life  is  founded  upon  the  personal  interest. 

"Such  are,  for  me,  the  true  political  principles. 
By  modifying  these  two  egotistical  sentiments  by 
the  consideration  of  a  future  life,  religion  tempers  the 
harshness  of  the  social  contracts.  Thus,  God  tem- 
pers the  sufferings  produced  by  the  conflict  of  inter- 
ests by  the  religious  sentiment,  which  makes  a  virtue 
of  forgetfulness  of  self,  as  He  has  moderated  by  un- 
known laws  the  clashing  in  the  mechanism  of  His 
worlds.  Christianity  bids  the  poor  to  endure  the 
rich;  the  rich,  to  soothe  the  miseries  of  the  poor;  for 
me,  these  few  words  are  the  essence  of  all  laws, 
divine  and  human." 

"I,  who  am  not  a  statesman,"  said  the  notary, 
"  I  see  in  a  sovereign  the  liquidator  of  a  society 
which  should  remain  in  a  constant  condition  of 
liquidation;  he  transmits  to  his  successor  actual 
effects  equal  in  value  to  those  he  has  received." 

"  I  am  not  a  statesman!"  replied  Benassis,  quickly, 
interrupting  the  notary.  "  It  requires  only  good 
sense  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  a  commune,  of  a 
canton,  or  of  an  arrondissement;  when  it  comes  to 
governing  a  department,  talent  is  necessary;  but 
these  four  administrative  spheres  offer  limited  hori- 
zons which  ordinary  perceptions  may  readily  in- 
clude; their  interests  are  connected  with  the  great 
movement  of  the  State  by  visible  bonds.  In  the 
higher  region  everything  is  enlarged,  the  eye  of  the 
statesman  should  survey  the  whole  field  from  the 
14 


2IO  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

point  of  view  which  he  occupies.  While  there  is 
required,  to  produce  much  good  in  a  department,  in 
an  arrondissement,  in  a  canton  or  in  a  commune, 
only  the  foreseeing  of  the  result  of  ten  years  of 
current  affairs,  there  is  required,  as  soon  as  it  is  a 
question  of  a  nation,  the  foreseeing  of  its  destinies, 
the  measuring  of  them  through  the  course  of  a 
century. 

"  The  genius  of  a  Colbert,  of  a  Sully,  is  nothing  if 
it  be  not  based  upon  the  will-power  which  makes 
Napoleons  and  Cromwells.  A  great  minister,  mes- 
sieurs, is  a  great  thought  inscribed  upon  all  the 
years  of  the  age  whose  splendor  and  prosperity 
have  been  prepared  by  him.  Constancy  is  the 
virtue  which  is  most  necessary  for  him.  But,  may 
we  not  say  also  that  in  all  human  affairs  con- 
stancy is  the  highest  expression  of  strength?  For 
some  time  now,  we  have  been  seeing  too  many  men 
who  have  only  ministerial  ideas,  instead  of  having 
national  ideas,  for  us  not  to  admire  as  the  true 
statesman  him  who  offers  us  the  very  highest  devel- 
opment of  poetical  human  thought.  To  be  able  to 
see  always  beyond  the  present  moment  and  in  ad- 
vance of  destiny,  to  be  above  power  and  to  remain 
in  it  only  through  a  consciousness  of  his  utility  with- 
out any  self-deception  as  to  his  own  strength;  to 
discard  his  passions  and  even  all  commonplace  ambi- 
tion in  order  to  remain  master  of  his  faculties,  to 
foresee,  to  will  and  to  act  incessantly;  to  make  him- 
self just  and  absolute,  to  maintain  order  on  a  large 
scale,  to  impose  silence  upon  his  heart  and  to  listen 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  211 

only  to  his  intelligence;  to  be  neither  suspicious  nor 
confident,  neither  doubting  nor  credulous,  neither 
grateful  nor  ungrateful,  neither  unprepared  for  an 
event  nor  surprised  by  an  idea;  to  live,  in  short, 
through  the  sentiment  of  the  masses,  and  to  dominate 
them  always  by  extending  the  wings  of  his  intelli- 
gence, the  volume  of  his  voice,  and  the  penetration 
of  his  eye;  in  seeing,  not  the  details,  but  the  con- 
sequences of  everything, — is  not  this  to  be  a  little 
greater  than  a  man?  Thus  the  names  of  these 
great  and  noble  fathers  of  the  nations  should  be 
held  forever  in  popular  remembrance." 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence,  during  which  the 
guests  looked  at  each  other. 

**  Messieurs,  you  have  said  nothing  of  the  army!" 
exclaimed  Genestas.  "  The  military  organization 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  true  type  of  all  good  civil 
society:  the  sword  is  the  tutor  of  a  people." 

"  Captain,"  replied  the  justice  of  the  peace,  laugh- 
ing, **  an  old  advocate  has  said  that  empires  begin 
by  the  sword  and  finish  by  the  inkstand;  we  are  at 
the  state  of  the  inkstand." 

"  Now  that  we  have  regulated  the  fate  of  the 
world,  messieurs,  let  us  speak  of  other  things. 
Come,  captain,  a  glass  of  the  wine  of  the  Hermit- 
age," exclaimed  the  doctor,  laughing. 

"  Two,  rather  than  one,"  said  Genestas,  extending 
his  glass,  "  and  I  wish  to  drink  them  to  your  health, 
as  to  that  of  a  man  who  does  honor  to  the  species." 

"And  whom  we  all  cherish,"  said  the  cure  in  a 
voice  full  of  mildness. 


212  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  Monsieur  Janvier,  do  you  then  wish  me  to  com- 
mit some  sin  of  pride?" 

"  Monsieur  le  cure  has  said  in  a  whisper  what 
all  the  canton  cries  aloud,"  replied  Cambon. 

'*  Messieurs,  I  propose  to  you  to  conduct  Monsieur 
Janvier  home,  taking  a  walk  in  the  moonlight." 

**  Let  us  go,"  said  the  guests,  preparing  to  accom- 
pany the  cure. 

"Come  to  my  barn,"  said  the  doctor,  taking 
Genestas  by  the  arm,  after  having  said  good-night 
to  the  cure  and  to  his  other  guests.  "  There,  Cap- 
tain Bluteau,  you  will  hear  talk  of  Napoleon.  I 
have  some  gossips  that  ought  to  make  Goguelat,  our 
foot-soldier,  gabble  about  this  god  of  the  people. 
Nicolle,  my  stable-boy,  has  put  up  a  ladder  for  us  to 
ascend  to  a  window  in  the  roof  above  the  hay,  to  a 
place  where  we  can  see  the  whole  scene.  Believe 
me,  come, — one  of  these  gatherings  is  worth  the 
trouble.  This  is  not  the  first  time  that  I  have  placed 
myself  in  the  hay  to  listen  to  a  soldier's  story  or 
some  peasant's  tale.  But  let  us  conceal  ourselves 
well, — when  these  poor  people  see  a  stranger,  they 
behave  strangely  and  are  no  longer  themselves." 

"Well,  my  dear  host,"  said  Genestas,  "have  I 
not  often  made  believe  to  sleep  in  order  to  listen  to 
my  horsemen,  around  the  bivouac!  Truly,  I  have 
never  laughed  at  the  Paris  theatres  as  heartily  as  at 
a  recital  of  the  rout  at  Moscow,  retailed  in  burlesque 
by  an  old  quatermaster  to  some  conscripts  who  were 
afraid  of  war.  He  said  that  the  French  army  did 
in  its  sheets,  that  everything  was  drunk  iced,  that 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  21 3 

the  dead  stopped  themselves  in  the  road,  that  White  1 
Russia  was  seen,  that  the  horses  were  curried  with 
your  teeth,  that  those  who  liked  to  skate  were  very 
well  treated,  that  the  amateurs  of  frozen  meats  were 
satiated,  that  the  women  were  generally  cold,  and 
that  the  only  thing  which  had  been  sensibly  dis- 
agreeable was  not  to  have  hot  water  for  shaving — 
In  short,  he  retailed  such  comic  broad  stories  that  an 
old  quartermaster  who  had  jiad  his  nose  frozen,  and 
who  was  called  Ne:(restant,*  laughed  at  them  him- 
self." 

"Hist!"  said  Benassis,  "  here  we  are;  I  will  go  in 
first,  follow  me." 

Both  of  them  mounted  the  ladder  and  concealed 
themselves  in  the  hay,  without  having  been  heard 
by  the  country  people  over  whose  heads  they  found 
themselves  seated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  enable 
them  to  see  them  very  well.  Gathered  in  little 
groups  around  three  or  four  candles,  some  of  the 
women  were  sewing,  others  were  spinning;  several 
were  quite  idle,  their  necks  stretched,  their  heads 
and  eyes  turned  toward  an  old  peasant  who  was 
relating  a  story.  The  greater  number  of  the  men 
stood,  or  reclined  upon  bundles  of  hay.  These 
groups,  perfectly  silent,  were  scarcely  lit  up  by  the 
wavering  beams  of  some  candles  enclosed  in  glass 
globes  full  of  water  which  concentrated  the  light  in 
rays,  in  which  the  workwomen  sat.  The  extent  of 
the  barn,  the  upper  part  of  which  remained  black 
and  sombre,  enfeebled  still  more  these  lights,  which 

*N«^«s/««<,— literally,  "  nose  remaining," — character  of  romance. 


214  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

colored  the  heads  unequally,  producing  picturesque 
effects  of  chiaro-oscuro.  Here,  shone  the  brown 
forehead  and  the  clear  eyes  of  a  curious  young 
peasant  girl;  there,  the  bands  of  light  cut  out  the 
rough  foreheads  of  some  old  men  and  fantastically 
outlined  their  worn  or  discolored  garments.  All 
these  individuals,  attentive  and  varied  in  their  atti- 
tudes, expressed  on  their  motionless  countenances 
the  completeness  with  which  they  abandoned  their 
intelligences  to  the  narrator.  It  was  a  curious  pic- 
ture in  which  was  strongly  displayed  the  very  great 
influence  exercised  by  poetry  on  all  minds.  In  re- 
quiring from  his  story-teller  a  marvellousness  always 
simple,  or  the  impossible  almost  credible,  does  not 
the  peasant  show  himself  to  be  appreciative  of  the 
purest  poetry.? 

** — Although  this  house  had  a  forbidding  appear- 
ance," the  peasant  was  saying  at  the  moment  when 
the  two  new  hearers  took  their  places  to  listen,  "  the 
poor  humpbacked  woman  was  so  fatigued  from  hav- 
ing carried  her  hemp  to  the  market  that  she  entered 
it,  compelled  to  do  so  also  by  the  night  which  had 
fallen.  All  that  she  asked  was  to  sleep  there;  for, 
as  to  food,  she  drew  a  crust  from  her  wallet  and  ate 
it.  So  that  the  hostess,  who  was  then  the  wife  of 
the  brigands,  knowing  nothing  of  what  they  had 
agreed  to  do  during  the  night,  welcomed  the  hump- 
back and  conducted  her  upstairs,  without  any  light. 
My  humpback  threw  herself  upon  an  old  bed,  said 
her  prayers,  thought  of  her  hemp,  and  disposed 
herself  for  sleep.     But,  before  she  had  fallen  asleep, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  21 5 

she  heard  a  noise  and  saw  two  men  enter  carrying  a 
lantern;  each  of  them  held  a  knife, — she  was  seized 
with  fear,  for,  you  see,  in  those  times,  the  seigneurs 
loved  pates  of  human  flesh  so  much  that  they  were 
made  for  them.  But,  as  the  little  old  woman's  skin 
was  quite  like  horn,  she  reassured  herself,  thinking 
that  she  would  be  considered  a  very  poor  food.  The 
two  men  pass  before  the  humpback,  come  to  a  bed 
which  was  in  that  great  room,  and  in  which  had  been 
put  the  monsieur  with  a  great  valise,  who  then  was 
considered  a  negromancer.  The  taller  of  the  two  men 
lifts  the  lantern,  taking  hold  of  the  feet  of  the  mon- 
sieur; the  little  one,  he  who  had  pretended  to  be 
drunk,  seizes  him  by  the  head  and  neatly  cuts  his 
throat  with  one  stroke,  crocl  Then  they  leave  there 
the  body  and  the  head,  all  bloody,  rob  the  valise 
and  go  downstairs.  Here  was  our  woman  in  a  fine 
embarrassment!  She  thinks  at  first  of  going  away 
without  anyone's  knowledge,  not  knowing  as  yet 
that  Providence  had  brought  her  here  in  order  to 
give  glory  to  God  and  cause  the  crime  to  be  pun- 
ished. She  was  afraid,  and  when  one  is  afraid,  one 
does  not  worry  about  anything  else  in  the  world. 
But  the  hostess,  who  had  asked  the  brigands  about 
the  humpbacked  woman,  frightens  them,  and  they 
go  softly  up  the  little  wooden  staircase  again.  The 
poor  humpback  is  paralyzed  with  fear,  and  hears 
them  disputing  in  a  whisper. 

*"  I  tell  you  to  kill  her.' 

"  *  Not  necessary  to  kill  her.* 

'"Kill  her!' 


2l6  THE  COU^^^RY  DOCTOR 

"'No!' 

"They  come  in.  My  woman,  who  was  not 
stupid,  closes  her  eyes  and  pretends  that  she  is 
asleep.  She  sets  herself  to  sleeping  like  a  child, 
her  hand  on  her  heart,  and  breathing  like  one  of  the 
cherubim.  He  who  had  the  lantern  opens  it,  puts 
the  light  in  the  eye  of  the  old  woman  asleep,  and  my 
woman  does  not  even  frown,  so  much  is  she  afraid 
for  her  neck. 

"  'You  see  very  well  that  she  is  sleeping  like  a 
top,*  says  the  tall  man. 

"  '  They  are  so  sly,  these  old  women,'  replies  the 
little  one.  '  I  am  going  to  kill  her,  we  shall  be  more 
easy.  Moreover,  we  will  salt  her  down,  and  we 
will  give  her  to  our  hogs  to  eat.* 

"  When  she  hears  this  proposition,  my  old  woman 
does  not  budge. 

"  *  Oh!  well,  she  is  asleep!'  says  the  little  ruffian, 
on  seeing  that  the  humpback  had  not  budged. 

"  This  was  the  way  the  old  woman  saved  herself. 
And  it  may  very  well  be  said  that  she  was  cou- 
rageous. Certainly  there  are  here  plenty  of  young 
girls  who  would  not  have  the  respiration  of  one  of 
the  cherubim  on  hearing  talk  of  the  hogs. — The 
two  brigands  then  lift  up  the  dead  man,  roll  him  up 
in  his  sheets,  and  throw  him  into  the  little  court, 
where  the  old  woman  hears  the  pigs  come  up,  grunt- 
ing Hon!  Hon!  to  eat  him. 

"Well,  then,  the  next  morning,"  resumed  the 
narrator  after  a  pause,  "the  woman  goes  away, 
paying  two  sous  for  her  night's  lodging.     She  takes 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  2\J 

up  her  wallet,  pretends  that  nothing  had  happened, 
asks  the  news  of  the  neighborhood,  goes  out  in 
peace,  and  wants  to  run.  Not  at  all!  fear  cuts  off 
her  legs,  very  fortunately  for  her.  Hear  why.  She 
had  scarcely  made  a  half  of  a  quarter  of  a  league, 
when  she  sees  one  of  the  brigands  coming,  one  who 
had  followed  her  shrewdly  to  make  certain  that  she 
had  seen  nothing.  She  guesses  that,  and  sits  down 
on  a  stone. 

"  *  What  is  the  matter  with  you,  my  good 
woman.!*'  says  the  little  one  to  her,  for  it  was  the 
little  one,  the  more  malicious  of  the  two,  who  was 
watching  her. 

"  *  Ah!  my  good  man,'  she  replies,  *  my  wallet  is 
so  heavy  and  I  am  so  tired,  that  I  shall  have  need  of 
the  arm  of  an  honest  man — Do  you  see,  this  artful 
one! — ^to  reach  my  poor  dwelling.' 

"  Thereupon,  the  brigand  offers  to  accompany  her. 
She  accepts.  The  man  takes  her  arm  to  see  if  she  is 
afraid.  Ah,  well!  this  woman  does  not  tremble  at 
all,  and  walks  along  peacefully.  And  then  you 
might  hear  them  both  talking  agriculture  and  the  best 
way  of  growing  hemp,  quite  calmly,  all  the  way 
to  the  suburb  of  the  city  where  the  humpback 
lived  and  where  the  brigand  left  her,  for  fear  of 
meeting  some  one  of  the  officers  of  justice.  The 
woman  arrives  at  her  own  house  at  the  hour  of  noon 
and  waits  for  her  husband,  reflecting  upon  the 
events  of  her  journey  and  of  the  night.  The  hemp- 
grower  came  in  toward  evening.  He  was  hungry; 
something  must  be  gotten  for  him  to  eat.     Then,  all 


2l8  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

the  while  she  is  greasing  her  frying-pan  so  that  she 
can  fry  him  something,  she  tells  him  how  she  has 
sold  her  hemp,  gabbling  after  the  manner  of  women; 
but  she  says  nothing  about  the  pigs,  nor  of  the 
monsieur,  killed,  robbed,  eaten.  Then  she  burns 
out  her  pan  to  clean  it;  takes  it  up,  goes  to  wip>e  it 
out,  finds  it  full  of  blood. 

"'What  did  you  put  in  it?'  she  says  to  her 
husband. 

•' '  Nothing,*  he  replies. 

**  She  thinks  she  has  some  woman's  crotchet  in 
her  head,  and  puts  her  pan  back  on  the  fire. — Pouf! 
a  head  falls  down  the  chimney. 

"  *  See!  it  is  precisely  the  head  of  the  dead  man,' 
says  the  old  woman.  '  How  he  looks  at  me!  What 
does  he  want  with  me,  then?' 

"  *  That  you  avenge  him!'  says  a  voice  to  her. 

"  *  How  stupid  you  are!'  says  the  hemp-grower; 
'there  you  are  with  your  nonsensical,  near-sighted 
delusions.' 

"  He  takes  the  head,  which  bites  his  finger,  and 
throws  it  out  in  his  courtyard. 

'"Make  my  omelette,'  he  says,  'and  do  not 
bother  yourself  about  that.     It  is  a  cat.' 

"  'A  cat!'  she  says,  '  it  was  as  round  as  a  ball,' 

"She  puts  her  pan  on  the  fire  again. — Pouff 
down  comes  a  leg.  Same  story.  The  man,  no 
more  surprised  to  see  the  foot  than  he  had  been  to 
see  the  head,  grabs  the  leg  and  throws  it  out  of  the 
door.  Finally,  the  other  leg,  the  two  arms,  the 
body,  the  whole  of  the  assassinated  traveller  comes 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  219 

down,  one  piece  after  the  other.    No  omelette.    The 
old  hemp-merchant  was  very  hungry. 

**  *  By  my  eternal  salvation,'  says  he,  *  if  my  om- 
elette is  made,  we  will  see  about  satisfying  that 
man  there.' 

"  '  You  admit  then  now  that  it  is  a  man,'  says  the 
humpback.  *  Why  did  you  say  to  me  just  now  that 
it  was  not  a  head,  you  great  plague?' 

"  The  woman  breaks  the  eggs,  fries  the  omelette, 
and  serves  it  without  scolding  any  more,  for,  in 
seeing  this  squabble,  she  began  to  be  anxious.  Her 
husband  seated  himself  and  began  to  eat.  The 
humpback,  who  was  afraid,  says  that  she  is  not 
hungry. 

Toe,  tod'  a  stranger  knocks  at  the  door. 

"'Who  is  there?' 

"'The  dead  man  of  yesterday.' 

"  '  Come  in,'  says  the  hemp-merchant. 
Then   the  traveller   enters,  sits   down   on  the 
stool,  and  says: 

"'Remember  God,  who  gives  His  peace  for  all 
eternity  to  those  who  confess  His  holy  name ! 
Woman,  you  saw  me  die,  and  you  keep  silence  !  I 
have  been  eaten  by  the  pigs!  Pigs  do  not  enter 
into  paradise.  Therefore  I,  who  am  a  Christian,  I 
shall  go  into  hell  because  a  woman  will  not  speak.' 
Such  a  thing  has  never  been  seen.  I  must  be  deliv- 
ered!' 

"And  other  things. 

"The  woman,  who  was  getting  more  and  more 
afraid,  cleans  her  pan,  puts  on  her  Sunday  clothes. 


220  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

goes  and  denounces  the  crime  to  the  ofificers  of  jus- 
tice; it  was  revealed,  and  the  thieves  neatly  broken 
on  the  wheel  on  the  market-place.  This  good  work 
accomplished,  the  woman  and  her  husband  have 
always  the  very  finest  hemp  that  you  ever  saw. 
Then,  which  was  more  agreeable  to  them,  they  had 
what  they  had  long  desired,  that  is  to  say,  a  male 
child,  who  became,  in  course  of  time,  baron  of  the 
kingdom.  This  is  the  true  story  of  The  Brave 
Humpback.'' 

"  1  do  not  like  such  stories,  they  make  me  dream," 
said  La  Fosseuse.  "  I  much  prefer  adventures  of 
Napoleon." 

"That  is  true,"  said  the  rural  guard. — "Come, 
now.  Monsieur  Goguelat,  tell  us  about  the  Emperor." 

"It  is  getting  too  late,"  said  the  letter-carrier, 
*'  and  I  do  not  like  to  shorten  the  victories." 

"All  the  same,  tell  them,  nevertheless.  We  know 
them  from  having  heard  you  tell  them  many  times; 
but  it  is  always  pleasant  to  hear  them." 

"Tell  us  about  the  Emperor!"  cried  several  voices 
together. 

"You  wish  it?"  said  Goguelat.  "Well,  you  will 
see  that  that  means  nothing  when  it  is  said  at  the 
double-quick.  I  prefer  to  relate  to  you  the  whole  of  a 
battle.  Will  you  have  Champ-Aubert,  where  there 
were  no  more  cartridges  and  where  they  were  pol- 
ished off,  all  the  same,  with  the  bayonet?" 

"  No!    The  Emperor,  the  Emperor!" 

The  foot-soldier  rose  from  his  bundle  of  hay, 
threw  over  the  assemblage  that  dark  look,  full  of  the 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  221 

souvenirs  of  misery,  suffering,  and  many  'events, 
which  characterizes  the  veterans.  He  took  his 
jacket  by  the  two  skirts  in  front,  lifted  them  as  if  to 
pack  again  the  sack  in  which  were  formerly  his 
clothes,  his  shoes,  all  his  fortune;  then  he  rested  his 
weight  on  his  left  leg,  advanced  the  right  and  yielded 
with  a  good  grace  to  the  wishes  of  the  assembly. 
After  having  pushed  back  his  gray  hair  from  one 
side  of  his  forehead  to  reveal  it,  he  lifted  his  head 
toward  heaven  in  order  to  raise  himself  to  the  height 
of  the  gigantic  history  which  he  was  about  to  relate. 

"You  see,  my  friends,  Napoleon  was  born  in 
Corsica,  which  is  a  French  island,  heated  by  the  sun 
of  Italy,  where  everything  is  as  in  a  furnace,  and 
where  they  kill  each  other,  from  father  to  son,  apro- 
pos of  nothing, — an  idea  which  they  have.  That 
you  may  begin  at  the  commencement  of  this  extra- 
ordinary thing,  his  mother,  who  was  the  most  beau- 
tiful woman  of  her  time  and  a  very  shrewd  one, 
took  the  notion  of  vowing  him  to  God,  in  order  that 
he  might  escape  all  the  dangers  of  his  infancy  and 
of  his  life,  because  she  had  dreamed  that  the  world 
was  on  fire  on  the  day  of  her  delivery.  This  was  a 
prophecy!  Therefore  she  asked  that  God  would 
protect  him,  on  condition  that  Napoleon  should  estab- 
lish again  His  holy  religion,  which  was  then  over- 
thrown—  This  was  what  was  agreed  upon,  and 
this  was  evidenced. 

"  Now,  then,  follow  me  carefully,  and  tell  me  if 
that  which  you  are  going  to  hear  is  natural! 

"It  is  sure  and  certain  that  a  man  who  had  had 


222  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

the  imagination  to  make  a  secret  compact  could  alone 
be  capable  of  passing  through  the  lines  of  the  others, 
through  the  balls,  the  discharges  of  grape-shot  which 
carried  us  away  like  flies,  and  which  respected  his 
head.  1  have  had  the  proof  of  that,  I  particularly, 
at  Eylau.  I  see  him  still,  he  ascends  a  hill,  takes 
his  glasses,  looks  at  his  battle,  and  says: 

"  *  That  is  going  well!' 

"  One  of  my  busybodies  all  beplumed,  who 
plagued  him  considerably  and  followed  him  every- 
where, even  while  he  was  eating,  we  were  told, 
wishes  to  do  the  smart  thing  and  takes  the  Emperor's 
place  when  he  goes  away.  Oh!  swept  away!  no 
more  plume!  You  understand  well  that  Napoleon 
had  promised  to  keep  his  secret  to  himself  alone. 
This  is  why  all  those  who  accompanied  him,  even 
his  particular  friends,  fell  like  nuts, — Duroc,  Bes- 
si^res,  Lannes,  all  of  them  men  strong  as  bars  of 
steel  which  he  melted  to  his  own  use.  Finally, 
as  a  proof  that  he  was  a  child  of  God,  made  to  be 
the  father  of  the  soldier,  it  is  that  he  was  never  seen 
either  lieutenant  or  captain!  Oh!  indeed,  yes!  at  the 
head  immediately.  He  did  not  have  the  air  of  being 
more  than  twenty-four  years  old  when  he  was  an 
old  general,  after  the  taking  of  Toulon,  where  he 
commenced  by  letting  the  others  see  that  they  knew 
nothing  about  manoeuvring  cannon.  After  that,  we 
tumble,  pretty  thinnish,  into  being  general-in-chief 
of  the  army  of  Italy,  which  wanted  for  bread,  for 
munitions,  for  shoes,  for  clothes,  a  poor  army,  naked 
as  a  worm. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  223 

"  •  My  friends,'  he  said, '  here  we  are  all  together. 
Now,  get  this  in  your  head,  that  in  a  fortnight  from 
now  you  shall  be  victors,  in  new  clothes,  that  you 
shall  all  have  greatcoats,  good  gaiters,  famous 
shoes;  but,  my  friends,  we  must  march  to  get  them 
at  Milan,  where  they  are.* 

"  And  we  marched.  The  French,  crushed  flat  as 
a  bed-bug,  picked  up.  We  were  thirty  thousand 
barefooted  against  eighty  thousand  German  bullies, 
all  fine  men,  well  furnished,  whom  I  can  see  now. 
Then  Napoleon,  who  was  then  only  Bonaparte, 
blew  something  into  our  stomachs,  I  don't  know 
what, — and  we  marched  the  night,  and  we  marched 
the  day,  we  smote  them  for  you  at  Montenotte,  we 
ran  to  drub  them  at  Rivoli,  Lodi,  Areola,  Millesimo, 
and  we  did  not  let  them  alone  for  you.  The  soldier 
took  a  taste  for  being  a  vanquisher.  Then  Napoleon 
surrounds  for  you  these  German  generals,  who  did  not 
know  where  to  hide  themselves  to  be  at  their  ease, 
cuffs  them  very  well,  filches  from  them  ten  thou- 
sand men  at  once  in  surrounding  them  for  you  with 
fifteen  hundred  Frenchmen  whom  he  multiplies  in 
his  own  way;  in  short,  he  takes  from  them  their 
cannon,  stores,  money,  munitions,  all  that  they  had 
that  was  good  to  take,  throws  them  into  the  water 
for  you,  beats  them  on  the  mountain,  bites  them  in 
the  air,  devours  them  on  the  earth,  flogs  them 
everywhere.  Then  you  would  see  the  troops 
putting  on  feathers  again;  because,  you  see,  the 
Emperor,  who  was  also  a  man  of  sense,  makes 
himself  welcome  to  the   inhabitant,   to  whom  he 


224  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

says  that  he  has  come  to  deliver  him.  Accord- 
ingly, the  citizen  lodges  us  and  makes  much  of  us, 
the  women  also,  who  were  very  judicious  women. 
Final  end,  in  Ventose  '96,  which  was  at  that  time 
the  month  of  March  of  to-day,  we  were  huddled  in 
a  corner  of  the  country  of  the  marmots;  but,  after 
the  campaign,  there  we  were  masters  of  Italy,  as 
Napoleon  had  predicted.  And,  in  the  month  of 
March  following,  in  only  one  year  and  two  cam- 
paigns, he  set  us  in  sight  of  Vienna, — everything 
was  swept  away.  We  had  eaten  up  three  succes- 
sive, different  armies,  and  ousted  four  Austrian 
generals,  of  whom  one  was  an  old  one  who  had 
white  hair,  and  who  was  cooked  like  a  rat  in  the 
straw,  at  Mantua.  The  kings  asked  for  mercy 
on  their  knees!  The  peace  was  secured.  Could  a 
man  have  done  all  that?  No.  God  aided  him,  that 
is  sure.  He  divided  himself  up  like  the  five  loaves 
of  bread  of  the  Gospel,  ordered  the  battle  in  the 
daytime,  prepared  it  during  the  night,  the  sentinels 
saw  him  always  going  and  coming,  and  he  neither 
slept  nor  ate.  So,  then,  recognizing  these  prodigies, 
the  soldier  just  adopted  him  for  his  father.  And 
forward  march! 

"The  others,  at  Paris,  seeing  this,  said  to  them- 
selves: 

" '  Here  is  a  pilgrim  who  appears  to  take  his 
orders  from  Heaven,  he  is  singularly  capable  of 
putting  his  hand  upon  France;  better  let  him  loose 
upon  Asia  or  upon  America,  he  will  be  content 
with  that,  perhaps!' 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  225 

"  This  was  written  for  him  as  for  Jesus  Christ. 
The  fact  is  that  he  was  given  orders  to  do  duty  in 
Egypt.  See  his  likeness  to  the  Son  of  God.  This 
is  not  all.  He  gathered  together  his  best  comrades, 
those  whom  he  had  particularly  inspired  with  deviltry, 
and  said  to  them  like  this: 

"'My  friends,  for  the  next  quarter  of  an  hour 
they  have  given  us  Egypt  to  chew.  But  we  will 
swallow  it  in  one  time  and  two  movements,  as 
we  have  done  Italy.  The  private  soldiers  shall 
be  princes  who  shall  have  estates  for  themselves. 
Forward!' 

"  '  Forward,  children!'  said  the  sergeants. 

"And  we  arrive  at  Toulon,  road  to  Egypt.  At 
that  time  the  English  had  all  their  vessels  on 
the  sea.  But,  when  we  embark.  Napoleon  says 
to  us: 

**  *  They  will  not  see  us,  and  it  is  well  that  you 
should  know,  at  the  present  time,  that  your  general 
possesses  a  star  in  the  heavens  which  guides  us  and 
protects  us!' 

"  What  was  said,  was  done.  In  crossing  the  sea, 
we  take  Malta,  like  an  orange  to  quench  his  thirst 
for  victory,  for  this  was  a  man  who  could  not  rest 
without  doing  something.  Here  we  are  in  Egypt. 
Good!  There,  another  order.  The  Egyptians,  you 
see,  are  men  who,  since  the  world  was  a  world, 
are  in  the  habit  of  having  giants  for  sovereigns, 
armies  as  numerous  as  ants;  because  it  is  a  country 
of  genii  and  of  crocodiles,  where  they  have  built 
pyramids  as  big  as  our  mountains,  under  which 
15 


226  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

they  have  had  the  idea  of  putting  their  kings  to 
keep  them  fresh, — a  thing  which  pleases  them  gen- 
erally. Well,  then,  when  disembarking,  the  Little 
Corporal  says  to  us: 

"  *  My  children,  the  countries  which  you  are  going 
to  conquer  belong  to  a  pile  of  gods  who  must  be 
respected,  because  the  French  should  be  the  friends 
of  all  the  world,  and  beat  people  without  vexing 
them.  Get  it  in  your  noddles  to  touch  nothing  at 
first;  because  we  shall  have  everything  afterward! 
And  march!* 

"  This  goes  very  well.  But  all  those  people  there, 
to  whom  Napoleon  was  predicted  under  the  name  of 
Kebir-Bonaberdis,  a  word  in  their  dialect  which  sig- 
nifies the  sultan  fires,  are  afraid  of  him  like  the 
devil.  Then,  the  Grand  Turk,  Asia,  Africa,  have 
recourse  to  magic,  and  send  us  a  demon,  named 
Mody,  suspected  of  having  descended  from  heaven 
upon  a  white  horse  which  was,  like  his  master, 
incombustible  to  bullets,  and  which,  both  of  them, 
lived  upon  the  air  of  the  period.  There  are  those 
who  have  seen  him;  but  1,  I  have  no  reasons  for 
making  you  certain  of  it.  This  was  the  power  of 
Arabia  and  the  Mamelukes,  who  wished  to  make 
their  troopers  believe  that  the  Mody  was  capable  of 
preventing  them  from  dying  in  battle,  under  the 
pretext  that  he  was  an  angel  sent  to  combat  Na- 
poleon and  to  recover  from  him  the  seal  of  Solomon, 
one  of  their  accoutrements,  which  they  pretended 
had  been  stolen  by  our  general.  You  understand 
that  we  made  them  grin,  all  the  same. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  227 

"Ah,  there!  tell  me,  where  had  they  learned  about 
Napoleon's  compact?     Was  that  natural? 

"It  was  taken  for  certain  in  their  minds  that  he 
commanded  the  genii,  and  transported  himself  in  a 
twinkling  from  one  place  to  another,  like  a  bird. 
The  fact  is  that  he  was  everywhere.  Finally,  that 
he  had  come  to  carry  off  from  them  a  queen,  beauti- 
ful as  the  day,  for  whom  he  had  offered  all  his  treas- 
ures and  diamonds  as  big  as  pigeon's  eggs,  a  bargain 
which  the  Mameluke,  of  whom  she  was  the  favorite, 
although  he  had  others,  had  positively  refused. 
Under  these  conditions,  things  could  not  then  be 
arranged  without  a  great  many  combats.  And  there 
was  no  mistake  as  to  this,  for  there  were  blows 
for  everybody.  Then,  we  are  put  in  line  at  Alex- 
andria, at  Gizeh,  and  before  the  Pyramids.  It  was 
necessary  to  march  under  the  sun,  in  the  sand, 
where  those  who  were  subject  to  fancies  saw  water 
which  could  not  be  drunken,  and  shade  which  made 
you  sweat.  But  we  ate  up  the  Mamelukes  ordinarily, 
and  everything  bends  to  the  voice  of  Napoleon,  who 
takes  possession  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  Arabia, 
in  short,  even  to  the  capitals  of  kingdoms  which  no 
longer  existed,  and  where  there  were  thousands  of 
statues,  the  five  hundred  devils  of  nature,  then,  in 
particular,  an  infinity  of  lizards,  a  devil  of  a  country 
in  which  each  one  could  take  his  acres  of  land,  if  that 
were  ever  so  little  agreeable  to  him.  While  he  is  oc- 
cupied with  his  affairs  in  the  interior,  where  he  had  a 
notion  of  doing  superb  things,  the  English  burn  his 
fleet  for  him  at  the  battle  of  Aboukir,  for  they  did  not 


228  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

know  what  to  invent  in  order  to  contrary  us.  But 
Napoleon,  who  had  the  esteem  of  the  Orient  and 
the  Occident,  whom  the  Pope  called  his  son  and  the 
cousin  of  Mahomet  his  dear  father,  wishes  to  avenge 
himself  on  England,  and  take  from  her  the  Indies,  to 
replace  his  fleet.  He  was  going  to  conduct  us  into 
Asia,  by  the  Red  Sea,  to  countries  where  there  are 
only  diamonds  and  gold  to  pay  the  soldiers  with, 
and  palaces  for  way-stations,  when  the  Mody  ar- 
ranges with  the  plague,  and  sends  it  to  us  to  inter- 
rupt our  victories.  Halt!  Then,  everybody  defiles  on 
that  parade  from  which  you  do  not  return  on  your 
feet. — The  dying  soldier  cannot  take  for  you  Saint- 
Jean  d'Acre,  into  which  there  was  an  entrance  made 
three  times  with  an  obstinacy  generous  and  martial. 
But  the  plague  was  the  stronger;  you  couldn't  say: 
*  My  good  friend  !*  Everybody  was  very  ill.  Napoleon 
alone  was  as  fresh  as  a  rose,  and  the  whole  army 
saw  him  drinking  the  pest  without  its  doing  any- 
thing to  him  at  all. 

"Ah,  there!  my  friends,  do  you  think  that  was 
natural } 

"  The  Mamelukes,  knowing  that  we  were  all  in  the 
ambulances,  wished  to  bar  the  road  to  us;  but,  with 
Napoleon,  that  farce  did  not  work.  Then,  he  said 
to  his  damned  ones,  to  those  who  had  the  hide 
thicker  than  the  others: 

"  '  Go  and  clear  the  road  for  me.' 

"  Junot,  who  was  a  swordsman  of  the  first  quality, 
and  his  true  friend,  takes  only  a  thousand  men,  and 
rips  up  for  you  all  the  same  the  army  of  a  pasha 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  229 

who  had  had  the  presumption  to  put  himself  in  the 
way.  After  that,  we  return  to  Cairo,  our  head- 
quarters.— Another  story.  Napoleon  absent,  France 
had  allowed  her  temperament  to  be  destroyed  by  the 
people  in  Paris,  who  kept  the  pay  of  the  soldiers, 
their  allowance  for  linen,  their  clothes,  allowed  them 
to  die  of  hunger,  and  wished  them  to  make  laws  for 
the  universe,  without  disturbing  themselves  in  any 
other  way.  They  were  imbeciles  who  amused  them- 
selves by  gossiping,  instead  of  putting  their  hands  to 
the  work.  And  then,  our  armies  were  beaten,  the 
frontiers  of  France  broken  into, — ^THE  MAN  was  no 
longer  there.  You  see,  I  say,  the  Man,  because  he 
was  called  like  that,  but  that  was  a  stupidity,  since 
he  had  a  star  and  all  its  peculiarities, — it  was  we 
others  who  were  the  men!  He  learns  the  history  of 
France  after  his  famous  battle  of  Aboukir,  where, 
without  losing  more  than  three  hundred  men,  and 
with  one  division  only,  he  vanquished  the  great 
army  of  the  Turks,  twenty-five  thousand  men 
strong,  and  he  tumbled  into  the  sea  more  than  a 
big  half  of  them,  r-r-rah!  This  was  his  last  thunder 
stroke  in  Egypt.  He  says  to  himself,  seeing  every- 
thing lost  down  there: 

" '  I  am  the  savior  of  France,  I  know  it,  I  must 
go  there.' 

"  But  you  must  know  that  the  army  did  not  know 
of  his  departure;  otherwise,  he  would  have  been 
kept  by  force,  to  make  of  him  Emp)eror  of  the 
Orient.  Therefore  we  are  very  sorrowful  when 
we  are  without  him,  for  he  was  our  joy.     He  leaves 


230  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

his  command  to  Kleber,  who  comes  off  guard  one  fine 
morning,  assassinated  by  an  Egyptian  who  was  put  to 
death  by  giving  him  a  bayonet  thrust  in  the  behind, 
which  is  the  manner  of  guillotining  in  that  country; 
but  that  causes  so  much  suffering  that  a  soldier  took 
pity  on  this  criminal  and  offered  him  his  gourd;  and 
as  soon  as  the  Egyptian  had  drunk  the  water,  he 
twisted  his  eye  with  an  infinite  pleasure.  But  we  are 
not  amused  at  this  bagatelle.  Napoleon  sets  foot  on 
a  cockle-shell,  a  little  vessel  of  nothing  at  all,  which 
was  called  La  Fortune,  and,  in  the  wink  of  an  eye, 
in  the  beard  of  the  English,  who  were  blockading 
him  with  ships  of  the  line,  frigates,  and  everything 
which  sails,  he  disembarks  in  France,  for  he  always 
had  the  gift  of  crossing  the  sea  in  a  stride.  Was 
that  natural.?  Bah!  as  soon  as  he  is  at  Frejus,  it  is  as 
much  as  to  say  that  he  has  his  feet  in  Paris,  There, 
everybody  adores  him,  but  he,  he  convokes  the 
government. 

"  *  What  have  you  done  with  my  children,  the 
soldiers.-"  he  says  to  the  lawyers;  *  you  are  a  pile  of 
rascals  who  are  bamboozling  the  people,  and  who 
devour  France  at  your  will.  This  is  not  just,  and 
I  speak  for  everybody  who  is  not  satisfied  with 
you,' 

"  Then,  they  all  want  to  gabble  and  to  kill  him; 
but,  wait  a  minute!  He  shuts  them  up  in  their  talk- 
ing barracks,  makes  them  jump  out  of  the  windows, 
and  enrolls  them  for  you  in  his  following,  where 
they  become  as  dumb  as  fish,  as  supple  as  a  tobacco- 
pouch.     From  this  stroke  he  passes  to  be  consul, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  23 1 

and,  as  it  was  not  he  who  could  doubt  the  Supreme 
Being,  he  then  fulfilled  his  promise  to  the  good  God, 
who  kept  His  word  seriously  with  him;  restores  to 
God  His  churches,  re-establishes  His  religion;  the 
bells  ring  for  God  and  for  him.  There  you  have  all 
the  world  content, — primo,  the  priests,  whom  he 
prevents  from  being  worried;  segondo,  the  bourgeois 
who  carries  on  his  business,  without  having  to  fear 
the  rapiamus  of  the  law  which  had  become  unjust; 
tertio,  the  nobles,  whom  he  forbade  to  be  put  to 
death,  according  to  the  habit  which  had  unfortu- 
nately been  contracted.  But  there  were  enemies 
to  be  swept  away,  and  he  did  not  go  to  sleep  over 
the  mess,  because,  you  see,  his  eye  surveys  the 
whole  world  for  you  just  like  a  man's  head.  Well, 
then,  he  appeared  in  Italy,  as  if  he  had  put  his  head 
through  the  window,  and  his  look  sufficed.  The 
Austrians  were  swallowed  up  at  Marengo,  like  gud- 
geons by  a  whale!  Haouf!  Here  French  victory 
chanted  her  gamut  sufficiently  high  for  all  the  world 
to  hear  it,  and  that  sufficed. 

"  '  We  will  not  play  that  any  more,'  say  the  Ger- 
mans. 

"  *  Enough  as  it  is,'  say  the  others. 

"  Total, — Europe  shows  the  white  feather,  Eng- 
land gives  In.  General  peace  in  which  the  kings 
and  the  peoples  pretend  to  embrace  each  other.  It  is 
then  that  the  Emperor  invented  the  Legion  of  Honor, 
a  very  good  thing,  indeed. 

"  *  In  France,'  he  said,  at  Boulogne,  before  the 
entire  army,  *  everybody  is  brave!     Therefore,  the 


232  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

civilian  who  shall  do  brilliant  actions  shall  be  the 
sister  of  the  soldier,  the  soldier  shall  be  his  brother, 
and  they  will  be  united  under  the  flag  of  honor.' 

"  We  others,  who  were  down  there,  we  return 
from  Egypt.  Everything  was  changed!  We  had 
left  him  a  general,  in  no  time  at  all  we  find  him 
an  Emperor.  Upon  my  worckTrance  had  given  her- 
j\^£^v\__ggj^  to  him  like  a  pretty  girl  to^  lancer^Then,  when 
this  was  done,  to  the  general  satisfaction,  one  may 
say,  there  took  place  a  sacred  ceremony  such  as  had 
never  been  seen  under  the  canopy  of  heaven.  The 
Pope  and  the  cardinals,  in  their  robes  of  gold  and  of 
red,  crossed  the  Alps  expressly  to  crown  him  before 
the  army  and  the  people,  who  clapped  their  hands. 
There  is  a  thing  which  I  should  be  unfair  not  to  say 
to  you.  In  Egypt,  in  the  desert,  near  to  Syria,  THE 
RED  MAN  appeared  to  him  on  the  mountain  of  Moses, 
to  say  to  him : 

"  *  Things  are  going  well!' 

"  Then,  at  Marengo,  the  evening  of  the  victory, 
for  the  second  time,  there  arose  before  him  on  his 
feet  the  Red  Man,  who  said  to  him: 

"'Thou  Shalt  see  the  world  at  thy  feet,  and 
thou  shalt  be  Emperor  of  the  French,  King  of  Italy, 
master  of  Holland,  sovereign  of  Spain,  of  Portugal, 
of  the  Illyrian  provinces,  protector  of  Germany, 
savior  of  Poland,  first  eagle  of  the  Legion  of  Honor, 
and  everything!' 

"  This  Red  Man,  you  see,  was  his  inspiration,  a 
sort  of  messenger  who  served  him,  as  several  say,  to 
communicate  with  his  star.    I,  I  have  never  believed 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  233 

that;  but  the  Red  Man  is  a  veritable  fact,  and 
Napoleon  spoke  of  him  himself,  and  said  that  he 
came  to  him  in  those  moments  which  were  hard 
to  endure,  and  lived  in  the  palace  of  the  Tuile- 
ries  in  the  garrets.  So,  at  the  coronation.  Napo- 
leon saw  him  in  the  evening  for  the  third  time, 
and  they  were  in  deliberation  over  many  things. 
Then,  the  Emperor  went  straight  to  Milan,  to  be 
crowned  King  of  Italy.  There  commences  the  real 
triumph  of  the  soldier.  From  that  time,  anyone 
who  knew  how  to  write  became  an  officer.  Then 
you  might  see  it  raining  pensions,  endowments  of 
duchies;  treasures  for  the  general  staff  which  cost 
nothing  to  France;  and  the  Legion  of  Honor  furnished 
incomes  for  the  private  soldiers,  from  which  I  still 
draw  my  pension.  Finally,  you  might  see  the  armies 
uniformed  in  such  a  manner  as  had  never  been  seen 
before.  But  the  Emperor,  who  knew  that  he  was 
going  to  be  emperor  of  the  world,  thinks  of  the  bour- 
geois, and  causes  to  be  built  for  them,  according  to 
their  ideas,  fairy  palaces,  there  where  there  was  no 
more  to  be  seen  than  there  is  on  my  hand. — Sup- 
posing that  you  were  returning  from  Spain  to  go  to 
Berlin;  well,  you  would  find  triumphal  arches  with 
private  soldiers  upon  them  in  fine  sculpture,  neither 
more  nor  less  than  generals.  Napoleon,  in  two 
or  three  years,  without  putting  any  taxes  on  you 
others,  filled  his  vaults  with  gold,  made  bridges, 
palaces,  roads,  philosophers,  fetes,  laws,  ships,  ports; 
and  expended  millions  of  trillions,  and  so  much,  and 
so  much,  that  I  have  been  told  that  he  could  have 


234  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

paved  France  with  hundred-sou  pieces,  if  that  had 
been  his  fancy.  Then,  when  he  found  himself  com- 
fortably on  his  throne,  and  so  completely  the  master 
of  all,  that  Europe  waited  for  his  permission  to  attend 
to  her  affairs,  as  he  had  four  brothers  and  three  sis- 
ters, he  said  to  us  conversationally,  in  the  order  of 
the  day: 

"  '  My  children,  is  it  just  that  the  relatives  of  your 
Emperor  should  have  to  seek  alms?  No.  I  wish 
that  they  should  be  brilliant,  just  like  me!  There- 
fore, it  is  quite  necessary  to  conquer  a  kingdom  for 
each  of  them,  so  that  the  French  shall  be  the  mas- 
ters of  everything;  that  the  soldiers  of  the  Guard 
should  make  the  world  tremble,  and  that  France  may 
spit  wherever  she  wants  to,  and  that  it  should  be 
said  to  her,  as  on  my  coins,  **  God  protects  you!  "  ' 

"  'Agreed!'  replies  the  army,  '  we  will  go  and  fish 
up  kingdoms  for  thee  with  the  bayonet.' 

"Ah!  this  was  the  time  that  there  was  no  going 
backward,  you  see!  and,  if  he  had  taken  it  into  his 
head  to  conquer  the  moon,  it  would  have  been  neces- 
sary to  arrange  for  that,  pack  his  knapsacks  and 
climb.  Luckily,  he  did  not  wish  to  do  it.  The 
kings,  who  were  accustomed  to  the  comfort  of  their 
thrones,  naturally  had  to  have  their  ears  pulled,  and 
then,  forward  march!  for  us.  We  march,  we  go,  and 
the  earthquake  recommences  in  its  entire  solidity. 
How  he  used  up  men  and  shoes  in  those  days!  Then, 
there  was  fighting  against  our  blows  so  cruelly  that 
any  others  but  the  French  would  be  tired  of  it.  But 
you  are  not  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the  Frenchman 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  235 

is  born  a  philosopher,  and,  a  little  sooner,  a  little 
later,  knows  that  he  must  die.  Therefore  we  all 
died  without  saying  anything,  because  it  was  a  pleas- 
ure to  see  the  Emperor  do  that  on  the  geographies. — 
Here  the  foot-soldier  described  quickly  a  circle  with  his 
foot  on  the  threshing-floor  of  the  barn. — And  he  said: 
*  That,  that  will  be  a  kingdom!'  and  that  was  a  king- 
dom. What  fine  times!  The  colonels  became  gen- 
erals, in  the  time  it  took  to  see  them;  the  generals, 
marshals;  the  marshals,  kings.  And  there  is  still 
one  who  is  alive  to  say  it  to  Europe,  although  he  is  a 
Gascon,  a  traitor  to  France  to  keep  his  crown,  who 
did  not  blush  for  shame,  because,  you  see,  the  crowns 
are  in  gold!  In  short,  the  sappers  who  knew  how  to 
read  became  nobles,  all  the  same.  I  who  am  speak- 
ing to  you,  I  have  seen  at  Paris  eleven  kings  and  a 
crowd  of  princes  who  surrounded  Napoleon  like  the 
rays  of  the  sun.  You  understand  that  every  soldier 
had  a  chance  to  pick  up  a  throne,  provided  that  he 
had  the  merit,  a  corporal  of  the  Guard  was  some- 
thing like  a  curiosity  which  was  admired  as  he  passed 
by,  because  each  one  had  his  contingent  in  the  vic- 
tory, perfectly  shown  in  the  bulletin.  And  what 
battles  there  were  !  Austeriitz,  where  the  army  ma- 
noeuvred as  if  on  parade;  Eylau,  where  the  Russians 
were  drowned  in  a  lake,  as  if  Napoleon  had  blown 
upon  it;  Wagram,  where  they  fought  for  three  days 
without  grumbling.  In  short,  there  were  as  many 
battles  as  there  are  saints  in  the  calendar.  Also  then 
was  it  proven  that  Napoleon  had  in  his  scabbard  the 
real  sword  of  God.     Then,  the  soldier  possessed  his 


236  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

esteem,  and  was  made  by  him  his  child,  he  was  con- 
cerned whether  you  had  shoes,  linen,  greatcoats, 
bread,  cartridges;  although  he  maintained  his  maj- 
esty, since  it  was  his  trade  to  reign.  But,  all  the 
same,  a  sergeant  and  even  a  soldier  could  say  to 
him:  '  My  Emperor,*  as  you  say  to  me  sometimes: 
'  My  good  friend.'  And  he  answered  the  arguments 
that  were  made  to  him,  slept  in  the  snow  like  the 
rest  of  us;  in  short,  he  had  almost  the  air  of  a 
natural  man.  I  who  am  speaking  to  you,  I  have 
seen  him,  the  feet  in  the  grape-shot,  no  more  dis- 
turbed than  you  are  there,  and  alert,  looking  through 
his  glasses,  always  about  his  business;  then,  we  re- 
mained there,  as  peaceable  as  Baptiste.  I  do  not 
know  how  he  managed  it,  but,  when  he  spoke  to  us, 
his  words  put  something  like  fire  in  our  stomachs; 
and,  to  show  him  that  we  were  his  children,  incapa- 
ble of  grumbling,  we  went  at  marching  gait  before 
the  blackguard  cannons,  which  yawned  and  vomited 
regiments  of  bullets,  without  saying  'take.care.'  In 
short,  the  dying  had  the  idea  of  raising  themselves 
up  to  salute  him  and  to  cry  to  him: 

"  ^yive  I  'Empereur  I ' 

"Was  that  natural.?  would  you  have  done  that 
for  a  simple  man? 

"At  that  time,  all  his  family  established,  the 
Empress  Josephine,  who  was  a  good  wife  all  the 
same,  having  the  thing  so  arranged  as  not  to  give 
him  any  children,  he  was  obliged  to  leave  her,  al- 
though he  loved  her  considerably.  But  he  had  to  have 
children,  on  account  of  the  government.     Learning 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  237 

of  this  difficulty,  all  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  fought 
as  to  who  should  give  him  a  wife.  And  he  mar- 
ried, we  were  told,  an  Austrian  woman,  who  was 
the  daughter  of  a  Caesar,  an  ancient  man  who  is 
everywhere  spoken  of,  and  not  only  in  our  country, 
where  you  hear  it  said  that  he  did  everything,  but  in 
Europe.  And  this  is  so  true  that,  I  who  am  speak- 
ing to  you  at  this  moment,  I  have  been  on  the 
Danube  where  I  have  seen  portions  of  a  bridge  built 
by  this  man,  who  appears  to  have  been,  at  Rome,  a 
relative  of  Napoleon,  where  he  authorized  the  Em- 
peror to  take  the  heritage  for  his  son.  Then,  after 
his  marriage,  which  was  a  fete  for  the  whole  world, 
and  where  he  remitted  to  the  people  ten  years  of 
taxes,  which  were  paid  all  the  same,  because  the 
tax-gatherers  did  not  take  account  of  it,  his  wife  had 
a  little  one  who  was  King  of  Rome;  a  thing  which 
has  not  yet  been  seen  upon  the  earth,  for  never 
was  a  child  born  a  king  while  his  father  was  living. 
That  day  a  balloon  left  Paris  to  carry  the  news  to 
Rome,  and  this  balloon  made  the  journey  in  a  day. 
Ah,  there!  are  there  still  some  of  you  who  will  main- 
tain to  me  that  all  that  was  natural?  No,  it  was 
written  above!  And  the  itch  take  him  who  will  not 
say  that  he  was  sent  by  God  himself  to  make  France 
triumph!  But  now  there  was  the  Emperor  of  Russia, 
who  had  been  his  friend,  who  is  vexed  because  he 
did  not  marry  a  Russian  woman  and  who  sustains 
the  English,  our  enemies,  to  whom  Napoleon  had 
always  been  prevented  from  going  to  say  two  words 
in  their  shops.      It  was  necessary,  then,  to  finish 


238  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

with  these  tricks.  Napoleon  is  vexed,  and  says 
to  us: 

"'Soldiers!  you  have  been  masters  of  all  the 
capitals  of  Europe;  save  Moscow,  which  is  allied  to 
England,  Now,  to  be  able  to  conquer  London  and 
the  Indies  which  belong  to  them,  I  find  it  definitely 
necessary  to  go  to  Moscow.' 

"  Then,  there  assembles  the  greatest  army  that 
had  ever  trailed  its  gaiters  over  the  globe,  and  so 
curiously  well  aligned  that  one  day  he  passed  in 
review  a  million  of  men. 

**  'Hourra!'  say  the  Russians. 

"  And  then  you  might  see  the  whole  of  Russia, 
those  animals  of  Cossacks  who  fly  away.  It  was 
country  against  country,  a  general  uproar,  and  it 
was  well  to  get  out  of  its  way.  And,  as  the  Red 
Man  had  said  to  Napoleon: 

"  '  It  is  Asia  against  Europe!* 

"  *  That  is  sufficient,'  he  said,  '  I  will  take  pre- 
cautions.' 

"And  you  might  see,  in  fact,  all  the  kings  who 
came  to  lick  the  hand  of  Napoleon!  Austria,  Prus- 
sia, Bavaria,  Saxony,  Poland,  Italy,  all  are  with  us, 
flatter  us,  and  that  was  fine!  The  eagles  never 
cooed  as  they  did  at  these  parades,  where  they 
were  above  all  the  flags  of  Europe.  The  Poles 
could  not  contain  themselves  for  joy,  because  the 
Emperor  had  the  idea  of  lifting  them  up;  from 
that,  Poland  and  France  have  always  been  brothers. 
Finally: 

"  '  Russia  for  usl'  cries  the  army. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  239 

"  We  enter,  very  well  furnished ;  we  march, 
march, — no  Russians.  Finally,  we  find  our  mas- 
tiffs encamped  at  the  Moscova.  It  was  there  that 
I  got  the  cross,  and  I  have  permission  to  say  that 
it  was  a  cursed  battle!  The  Emperor  was  anxious, 
he  had  seen  the  Red  Man,  who  said  to  him: 

"  *  My  son,  thou  art  forcing  the  pace,  men  will 
fail  thee,  friends  will  betray  thee.' 

"Then,  proposals  of  peace.     But,  before  signing: 

"  *  Let  us  pummel  the  Russians!'  he  says  to  us. 

"  *  Done!'  cried  the  army. 

** '  Forward!'  said  the  sergeants. 

**  My  shoes  were  worn  out,  my  clothes  all  torn, 
through  having  run  up  and  down  those  roads,  which 
are  not  convenient  at  all!     But  that  is  nothing! 

**  *  Since  it  is  the  end  of  the  earthquake,'  I  say  to 
myself,  *  I  wish  to  get  my  belly  full ! ' 

"  We  were  before  the  great  ravine;  tjiey  were  the 
front  places!  The  signal  is  given, g45even  hundred 
pieces  of  artillery  begin  a  conversation  that  would 
make  your  blood  come  out  of  your  ears.  ""There,  you 
must  do  justice  to  your  enemies,  the  Russians  died 
like  the  French,  without  falling  back,  and  we  did  not 
advance. 

"'Forward!'  they  say  to  us,  'there  is  the  Em- 
peror!' 

"  That  was  true, — passes  at  a  gallop  making  us  a 
sign  that  it  was  very  important  to  take  the  redoubt. 
He  animates  us,  we  run,  I  arrive  the  first  in  the 
ravine.  Ah!  Mon  Dieu!  the  lieutenants  fall,  the 
colonels,  the  soldiers.     That  is  all  the  same!    That 


240  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

made  shoes  for  those  who  had  none  and  epaulettes 
for  the  intriguers  who  knew  how  to  read. — '  Vic- 
tory!' it  is  the  cry  all  along  the  line.  As  an  example, 
that  had  never  before  been  seen,  there  were  twenty- 
five  thousand  Frenchmen  on  the  ground.  Excuse 
me  a  little!  It  was  a  real  field  of  grain  cut  down, — 
instead  of  ears,  put  men!  we  were  sobered,  we 
others.  The  man  arrives,  a  circle  is  made  around 
him.  Then,  he  wheedles  us,  for  he  was  amiable 
when  he  wished  to  be,  to  the  point  of  satisfying  our 
hardships  with  a  hunger  equal  to  that  of  two  wolves. 
Then,  my  wheedler  distributes  the  crosses  himself, 
salutes  the  dead;  then  he  says  to  us: 

"  *  To  Moscow!' 

"  *  On  to  Moscow!'  says  the  army. 

"  We  take  Moscow.  Did  not  the  Russians  burn 
their  city.?  It  was  like  a  straw  fire  for  two  leagues, 
which  flamed  for  two  days.  The  buildings  tumbled 
like  slates.  There  were  rains  of  iron  and  of  melted 
lead  which  were  naturally  horrible;  and  it  can  be 
said  to  you,  to  you  here,  this  was  the  lightning  of 
our  misfortunes.     The  Emperor  said: 

"  '  Enough  of  this,  all  my  soldiers  shall  rest  here.' 

"  We  amuse  ourselves  by  refreshing  ourselves  for 
a  minute  and  by  fixing  up  the  body,  for  we  were 
really  much  fatigued.  We  carry  off  a  cross  of  gold 
which  was  on  the  Kremlin,  and  every  soldier  had  a 
little  fortune.  But,  on  our  return,  the  winter  comes 
a  month  earlier,  a  thing  which  the  savants,  who  are 
stupid,  have  not  sufficiently  explained,  and  the  cold 
pinches  us.     No  more  an  army,  do  you  understand.? 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  241 

no  more  generals,  no  more  sergeants  even!  Then, 
it  was  the  reign  of  misery  and  hunger,  a  reign 
in  which  we  were  really  all  equals!  Nothing  was 
thought  of  but  to  see  France  again;  no  one  stooped 
to  pick  up  his  gun  or  his  money;  and  everyone 
went  straight  before  him,  his  arms  as  he  pleased, 
without  thinking  of  glory.  In  short,  ({he  weather 
was  so  bad  that  the  Emperor  no  longer  saw  his  star. 
There  was  something  between  the  sky  and  him. 
Poor  man,  how  sick  he^was  to  see  his  eagles  going 
backward  from  victory!  And  that  gave  him  a  severe 
one,  you  may  be  sure!'  Then  comes  the  Beresina. 
Here,  my  friends,  it  can  be  affirmed  to  you  by  all 
that  there  is  of  the  most  sacred,  upon  honor,  that, 
since  there  have  been  men,  never,  a  great  never, 
was  there  seen  such  a  fricassee  of  an  army,  of 
wagons,  of  artillery,  in  such  a  snow,  under  a  sky  so 
ungrateful.  The  barrel  of  the  muskets  burned  your 
hand  if  you  touched  it,  it  was  so  cold.  It  is  there 
that  the  army  was  saved  by  the  pontonniers,  who 
were  solid  at  their  posts,  and  there  Gondrin  behaved 
himself  perfectly,  the  only  one  living  of  those  who 
were  obstinate  enough  to  go  into  the  water  in  order 
to  build  the  bridges  over  which  the  army  passed,  and 
escaped  the  Russians,  who  had  still  a  respect  for  the 
Grand  Army,  on  account  of  the  victories.  And," 
said  he,  pointing  to  Gondrin,  who  was  watching  him 
with  the  attention  peculiar  to  the  deaf,  "  Gondrin  is 
a  finished  trooper,  a  trooper  of  honor,  even,  who  is 
entitled  to  your  highest  regards. 

"I   saw,"  he   resumed,  "the  Emperor  standing 
16 


242  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

near  the  bridge,  motionless,  not  feeling  the  cold. 
Was  that  natural  again?  He  watched  the  loss  of 
his  treasures,  of  his  friends,  of  his  old  Egyptians. 
Bah!  everything  passed,  the  women,  the  carts,  the 
artillery,  everything  was  consumed,  devoured,  ruined. 
The  most  courageous  guarded  the  eagles,  because 
the  eagles,  you  see,  they  were  France,  they  were  all 
you  others,  they  were  the  honor  of  the  civil  and  the 
military,  which  should  remain  pure  and  not  stoop 
its  head  because  of  the  cold.  No  one  was  warmed 
scarcely  excepting  near  the  Emperor,  since,  when  he 
was  in  danger,  we  ran  there,  frozen,  we  who  would 
not  stop  to  extend  the  hand  to  a  friend.  It  was  said 
also  that  he  wept  in  the  night  over  his  poor  family 
of  soldiers.  There  were  only  he  and  the  French  to 
get  ourselves  out  of  there;  and  we  got  out,  but  with 
losses,  and  very  great  losses,  1  say  to  you!  The 
allies  had  eaten  our  provisions.  Everything  began 
to  betray  him,  as  the  Red  Man  had  said  to  him. 
The  gabblers  of  Paris,  who  had  been  silent  since  the 
establishment  of  the  Imperial  Guard,  thought  him 
dead  and  got  up  a  conspiracy,  in  which  was  the 
prefect  of  police,  to  overthrow  the  Emperor.  He 
learns  these  things,  they  vex  him,  you  see,  and  he 
says  to  us  when  he  left: 

"  'Adieu,  my  children,  guard  the  posts;  I  will 
return.' 

"Bah!  his  generals  lost  their  heads;  for,  without 
him,  it  was  no  longer  the  same  thing.  The  marshals 
spoke  foolishnesses  to  each  other,  did  stupidities, 
and  this  was  natural;  Napoleon,  who  was  a  good 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  243 

man,  had  nourished  them  with  gold,  they  became  as 
fat  as  bacon,  so  that  they  did  not  want  to  march. 
From  this  came  misfortunes,  because  several  of 
them  remained  in  garrison  without  rubbing  the  back 
of  the  enemies  behind  whom  they  were,  whilst  we 
were  being  pushed  toward  France.  But  the  Em- 
peror returns  to  us  with  conscripts,  and  famous 
conscripts,  of  whom  he  changed  the  quality  com- 
pletely, and  made  of  them  fine  dogs,  fit  to  bite 
anyone  whatever,  with  bourgeois  as  guards  of  honor, 
a  fine  troop  that  melted  like  butter  on  a  griddle. 
Notwithstanding  all  our  firmness,  everything  is 
against  us;  but  the  army  still  performs  prodigies 
of  valor.  Then,  giving  mountain  battles,  peoples 
against  peoples,  at  Dresden,  Lutzen,  Bautzen —  Re- 
member this,  all  of  you,  because  it  was  then  that 
Frenchmen  were  so  particularly  heroic  that,  at  that 
time,  a  good  grenadier  did  not  last  more  than  six 
months.  We  triumph  always,  but  behind  our  backs 
would  you  not  see  the  English  making  the  people 
revolt  by  telling  them  nonsense!  In  short,  we  make 
daylight  through  these  packs  of  nations.  Every- 
where that  the  Emperor  appears,  we  clear  the  way, 
because,  on  land  as  on  sea,  wherever  he  said: '  I  will 
pass,'  we  passed. 

"  Final  end,  we  are  in  France,  and  there  is  more 
than  one  poor  foot-soldier  for  whom,  notwithstanding 
the  hardness  of  the  season,  the  air  of  his  country  has 
put  his  soul  in  a  satisfactory  state.  1,  I  can  say,  for 
my  own  case,  that  that  refreshed  my  life. — But  at 
this  hour  it  was  a  question  of  defending  France,  the 


244  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

country,  the  beautiful  France,  in  fact,  against  the 
whole  of  Europe,  which  was  vexed  at  us  for  having 
wished  to  lay  down  the  law  to  the  Russians,  in  push- 
ing them  back  within  their  proper  limits,  so  that  they 
should  not  eat  us  up,  as  is  the  habit  of  the  North, 
which  has  a  keen  appetite  for  the  South,  a  thing 
which  I  have  heard  said  by  several  generals.  Then, 
the  Emperor  sees  his  own  father-in-law,  his  friends 
whom  he  had  made  kings,  and  the  blackguards  to 
whom  he  had  restored  their  thrones,  all  against 
him.  Finally,  even  the  French  and  the  allies  turned 
against  us  by  superior  orders,  in  our  ranks,  as  at 
the  battle  of  Leipsic.  Are  not  these  horrors  of 
which  simple  soldiers  are  scarcely  capable?  Those 
people  broke  their  word  three  times  a  day,  and  they 
called  themselves  princes!  Then,  the  invasion  takes 
place.  Everywhere  that  the  Emperor  shows  his 
lion  face,  the  enemy  recoils,  and  he  did  at  that  time, 
in  defending  France,  more  prodigies  than  he  had 
done  in  conquering  Italy,  the  Orient,  Spain,  Europe, 
and  Russia.  Then,  at  that  time,  he  wishes  to  bury 
all  the  foreigners  at  once,  in  order  to  teach  them  to 
respect  France,  and  to  let  them  come  before  Paris 
so  as  to  swallow  them  all  at  once,  and  lift  himself  to 
the  last  degree  of  genius  by  a  battle  still  greater 
than  all  the  others,  a  mother  of  battles,  in  short! 
But  the  Parisians,  afraid  for  their  skins  worth  two 
farthings  and  their  shops  worth  two  sous,  open 
their  gates;  it  is  the  ragusades  which  begin  and  the 
fine  times  which  end,  the  Empress  who  is  nagged 
at,  the  white  banner  which  is  put  in  the  windows. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  245 

Finally,  the  generals,  whom  he  had  made  his  best 
friends,  abandon  him  for  the  Bourbons,  who  had 
never  been  heard  of.  Then  he  says  adieu  to  us  at 
Fontainebleau: 

"'Soldiers!'— 

"  I  hear  him  now,  we  all  wept  like  real  children; 
the  eagles,  the  flags,  were  drooped  as  for  a  funeral, 
for,  I  may  say  to  you  that  it  was  the  funeral  of  the 
Empire,  and  its  smart  armies  were  no  longer  any- 
thing but  skeletons.  Then,  he  said  to  us,  from  the 
top  of  the  perron  of  his  chateau: 

"'My  children,  we  are  vanquished  by  treason, 
but  we  shall  see  each  other  again  in  heaven,  the 
country  of  the  brave.  Defend  my  little  son,  whom 
I  confide  to  you:  yive  Napoleon  II!* 

"  He  thought  of  dying;  and,  to  prevent  the  sight 
of  Napoleon  vanquished,  he  takes_a_j)oisoja  -that 
would  kill  a  regiment,  because,  like  Jesus  Christ 
before  His  Passion,  he  believed  himself  to  be  aban- 
doned of  God  and  by  his  talisman;  but  the  poison 
had  no  effect  upon  him  at  all.  Another  thing!  he 
recognized  himself  as  immortal.  Sure  of  himself, 
and  of  being  always  an  Emperor,  he  goes  on  an 
island  for  a  little  time  to  study  the  manners  and 
doings  of  those  others,  who  did  not  fail  to  commit 
follies  without  end.  Whilst  he  was  on  watch,  the 
Chinese  and  the  animals  of  the  African  coast,  of  the 
Barbary  States  and  others  who  are  not  nice  at  all, 
were  so  convinced  that  he  was  something  else  than  a 
man  that  they  respected  his  flag,  saying  that  to  touch 
it  was  to  offend  God.     He  reigned  over  the  whole 


246  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

world,  whilst  these  others  had  put  him  out  of  the 
door  of  his  own  France.  Then,  he  embarks  on 
the  same  cockle-shell  as  in  Egypt,  passes  under  the 
beard  of  the  English  vessels,  sets  his  foot  on  French 
soil;  all  France  recognizes  him,  the  sacred  cuckoo 
flies  from  steeple  to  steeple,  all  France  cries:  *  yive 
I'Empereur!'  And  just  here  the  enthusiasm  for  this 
wonder  of  the  ages  was  solid,  Dauphine  behaved 
excellently;  and  I  was  particularly  pleased  to  know 
that  they  wept  with  joy  when  they  saw  his  gray 
overcoat  again.  ^ 

"  On  the  first  of  March,  Napoleon  disembarked 
with  two  hundred  men  to  conquer  the  kingdom  of 
France  and  Navarre,  which,  on  the  20th  of  March, 
had  become  the  French  Empire.  The  man  found 
himself  on  that  day  in  Paris,  having  swept  up  every- 
thing, he  had  taken  again  his  dear  France,  and 
gathered  up  his  troopers  by  saying  to  them  only 
these  two  words:  '  Here  I  am!'  It  is  the  greatest 
miracle  that  God  has  done!  Before  him,  did  any 
m£in  ever  take  an  empire  only  by  showing  his  hat? 
It  was  thought  that  France  was  crushed.?  Not  at 
all.  At  the  sight  of  the  eagle,  a  national  army  is 
formed  again,  and  we  all  march  to  Waterloo.  At  that 
time,  there,  the  Guard  die  at  a  single  blow.  Napo- 
leon, in  despair,  throws  himself  three  times  before 
the  enemy's  cannon  at  the  head  of  the  rest,  without 
finding  death!  We  saw  that,  we  others!  Behold 
the  battle  lost.  In  the  evening,  the  Emperor  calls 
together  his  old  soldiers,  burns  in  a  field  full  of  our 
blood  his  flags  and  his  eagles;   those  poor  eagles, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  247 

always  victorious,  which  had  screamed  in  the  battles 
'Forward!'  and  which  had  flown  over  the  whole  of 
Europe,  were  saved  from  the  infamy  of  being  taken 
by  the  enemy.  The  treasures  of  all  England  could 
not  give  her  even  the  tail  of  an  eagle.  No  more 
eagles!  .  The  rest  is  sufficiently  well  known.  The 
(^ed  Man  passed  over  to  the  Bourbons,  like  the 
wfHtch  that  he  is. 

"France  is  crushed,  the  soldier  is  no  longer  any- 
thing, he  is  deprived  of  what  is  due  him,  he  is  sent 
back  to  his  own  place  for  you,  only  to  take  in  his 
stead  the  nobles  who  could  no  longer  march,  which 
was  pitiful.  Napoleon  is  captured  by  treason,  the 
English  nail  him  on  a  desert  island  in  the  midst  of 
the  ocean,  on  a  rock  elevated  ten  thousand  feet 
above  the  world.  Final  ending,  he  is  obliged  to 
remain  there,  until  the  Red  Man  restores  to  him 
his  power  for  the  happiness  of  France.  These 
others  say  he  is  dead!  Ah,  well,  yes!  dead!  it  is 
very  evident  that  they  do  not  know  him.  They 
repeat  that  humbug  to  catch  the  people  and  to 
make  them  stay  quiet  in  their  barracks  of  a  gov- 
ernment. Listen:  the  truth  of  the  matter  is  that 
his  enemies  left  him  alone  in  the  desert,  in  order  to 
fulfil  a  prophecy  made  about  him,  for  I  forgot  to 
inform  you  that  his  name  of  Napoleon  signifies  the 
Lion  of  the  desert.  And  this  is  as  true  as  the  Gospel. 
All  the  other  things  which  you  will  hear  said  about 
the  Emperor  are  stupidities  which  have  no  natural 
shape.  Because,  you  see,  it  is  not  to  the  child 
of  a  woman  that  God  would  have  given  the  right 


248  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

to  trace  his  name  in  red,  as  he  has  written  his  name 
upon  the  earth,  which  will  always  remember  him! — 
Vive  Napoleon!  the  father  of  the  people  and  of  the 
soldier!" 

^'J/ive  le  GerUral  EbU!  "  cried  the  pontonnier. 

"How  did  you  manage  so  as  not  to  die  in  the 
ravine  of  the  Moscova?"  said  a  peasant  woman. 

"  How  do  I  know?  We  entered  it  a  regiment,  we 
were  left  standing  there  a  hundred  foot-soldiers,  be- 
cause there  were  only  foot-soldiers  capable  of  taking 
it!  The  infantry,  you  see,  it  is  everything  in  an 
army — " 

"And  how  about  the  cavalry?"  exclaimed  Genes- 
tas,  allowing  himself  to  slide  down  from  the  top  of 
the  hay  and  appearing  with  a  suddenness  which 
caused  the  most  courageous  to  utter  a  cry  of  affright. 
*'He!  my  veteran,  you  forget  the  red  lancers  of 
Poniatowski,  the  cuirassiers,  the  dragoons,  all  the 
shock!  When  Napoleon,  impatient  at  seeing  his 
battle  not  advancing  toward  the  conclusion  of  the 
victory,  said  to  Murat:  *  Sire,  cut  that  in  two  for 
me!*  we  set  out,  at  first,  at  a  trot,  then  at  a  gallop; 
one,  two!  the  army  of  the  enemy  was  split  like  an 
apple  with  a  knife.  A  charge  of  cavalry,  my  old 
fellow — why,  it  is  a  column  of  cannon-balls!" 

"And  the  pontonniers  ?  "  exclaimed  the  deaf  man. 

"Ah,  there!  my  children,"  resumed  Genestas, 
quite  ashamed  of  his  incursion  on  seeing  himself  in 
the  midst  of  a  circle  silent  and  stupefied,  "  there  are 
no  inciters  to  disloyalty  here!  Hold!  here  is  some- 
thing with  which  to  drink  to  the  Little  Corporal." 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  249 

"Vive  rEmpereur!"  cried,  with  one  voice,  all  the 
gathering. 

"Chut!  my  children,"  said  the  officer,  endeavor- 
ing to  conceal  his  profound  grief.  "Chut!  he  died 
saying:  'Glory,  France,  and  battle!'  My  children, 
he  had  to  die,  he;  but  his  memory — never!" 

Goguelat  made  a  sign  of  incredulity,  then  he  said 
in  a  low  voice  to  his  neighbors: 

"  The  officer  is  still  in  the  service,  and  it  is  their 
orders  to  say  to  the  people  that  the  Emperor  is  dead. 
You  must  not  be  vexed  with  him,  because,  after 
all,  a  soldier  knows  only  his  orders." 

As  he  left  the  barn,  Genestas  overheard  La  Fos- 
seuse,  who  said: 

"  That  officer,  you  see,  is  a  friend  of  the  Emperor 
and  of  Monsieur  Benassis." 

All  the  people  in  the  barn  hurried  to  the  door  to 
see  the  commandant  again;  and,  by  the  light  of  the 
moon,  they  perceived  him  taking  the  arm  of  the 
physician. 

"  I  have  done  a  stupid  thing,"  said  Genestas. 
"Let  us  get  home  quickly!  Those  eagles,  those 
cannon,  those  campaigns! — I  no  longer  knew  where 
I  was." 

"  Well,  what  do  you  say  of  my  Goguelat.''"  asked 
the  doctor. 

**  Monsieur,  with  such  recitals,  France  will  always 
have  in  her  stomach  the  fourteen  armies  of  the  Re- 
public, and  will  be  perfectly  able  to  sustain  the  con- 
versation with  cannon-shot  with  Europe.  That  is 
my  opinion." 


250  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

In  a  few  moments  they  reached  the  dwelling  of 
Benassis,  and  presently  found  themselves,  both  some- 
what thoughtful,  seated  one  on  each  side  of  the  chim- 
ney-piece of  the  salon,  where  the  dying  fire  still  threw 
out  a  few  sparks.  Notwithstanding  the  testimonials 
of  his  confidence  which  he  had  received  from  the 
physician,  Genestas  still  hesitated  to  put  to  him  a 
last  question  which  might  seem  indiscreet;  but,  after 
having  regarded  him  with  a  few  searching  glances, 
he  was  encouraged  by  one  of  those  smiles,  full  of  the 
amenities,  which  animate  the  lips  of  men  who  are 
truly  strong,  and  by  which  Benassis  seemed  already 
to  reply  favorably.     He  therefore  said  to  him: 

"  Monsieur,  your  life  differs  so  greatly  from  that 
of  ordinary  people,  that  you  will  not  be  surprised  to 
hear  me  ask  of  you  the  cause  of  your  retirement. 
If  my  curiosity  should  seem  to  you  inconvenient, 
you  will  admit  that  it  is  very  natural.  Listen:  I 
have  had  comrades  to  whom  I  have  never  used  the 
familiar  thou,  not  even  after  having  made  several 
campaigns  with  them;  but  I  have  had  others  to 
whom  I  would  say:  '  Go  and  get  our  money  from  the 
paymaster!'  three  days  after  we  had  been  tipsy  to- 
gether, as  sometimes  may  happen  to  the  most  honest 
people  in  the  course  of  necessary  convivialities. 
Well,  you  are  one  of  those  men  whose  friend  I 
make  myself,  without  waiting  for  their  permission, 
and  even  without  well  knowing  why." 

"Captain  Bluteau— " 

For  some  time  past,  on  every  occasion  on  which 
the  physician  had  uttered  the  fictitious  name  that 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  25 1 

his  guest  had  assumed,  the  latter  had  been  unable 
to  repress  a  slight  grimace.  At  this  moment,  Be- 
nassis  surprised  this  expression  of  repugnance,  and 
looked  steadily  at  the  officer  in  the  endeavor  to  dis- 
cover the  cause;  but,  as  it  was  very  difficult  for  him 
to  divine  the  true  one,  he  attributed  this  movement 
to  some  bodily  pain,  and  said,  continuing: 

"  Captain,  I  am  going  to  speak  of  myself.  Sev- 
eral times  already  since  yesterday  I  have  done  a 
sort  of  violence  to  myself  in  explaining  to  you  the 
improvements  which  I  have  been  able  to  bring  about 
here;  but  it  was  a  question  of  the  commune  and 
of  its  inhabitants,  with  the  interests  of  which  my 
own  are  necessarily  mingled.  Now,  to  tell  you 
my  own  story,  that  would  be  to  entertain  you  only 
with  myself,  and  my  life  has  but  little  of  interest 
in  it." 

"Were  it  simpler  than  that  of  your  Fosseuse," 
replied  Genestas,  "  I  should  still  wish  to  hear  it, 
that  I  might  know  of  the  vicissitudes  which  could 
throw  into  this  canton  a  man  of  your  quality." 

*'  Captain,  for  the  last  twelve  years  I  have  not 
spoken.  Now  that  I  am  waiting,  on  the  edge  of  my 
grave,  the  stroke  that  shall  precipitate  me  into  it,  1 
will  have  the  good  faith  to  admit  to  you  that  this 
silence  is  beginning  to  weigh  upon  me.  For  the  last 
twelve  years  I  have  suffered  without  having  re- 
ceived the  consolations  which  friendship  lavishes  on 
sorrowful  hearts.  My  poor  patients,  my  peasants, 
offer  me,  indeed,  the  example  of  a  perfect  resigna- 
tion, but  I  understand  them,  and  they  perceive  it; 


252  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

whilst  no  one  here  can  receive  my  secret  tears,  nor 
give  me  that  grasp  of  the  hand  of  an  honest  man, 
the  finest  of  recompenses,  which  is  not  wanting  for 
anyone,  not  even  for  Gondrin." 

With  a  sudden  movement,  Genestas  extended  his 
hand  to  Benassis,  who  was  strongly  affected  by 
this  gesture. 

"  Perhaps  La  Fosseuse  would  have  understood 
me  like  an  angel,"  he  resumed,  in  an  altered  voice, 
"but  she  would,  perhaps,  have  loved  me,  and  that 
would  have  been  a  misfortune.  See,  captain,  only 
an  indulgent  old  soldier,  such  as  you  are,  or  a 
young  man  filled  with  illusions,  could  hear  my  con- 
fession, for  it  could  be  comprehended  only  by  a  man 
to  whom  life  is  well  known,  or  by  a  youth  to  whom 
it  is  entirely  strange.  For  want  of  a  priest,  the 
ancient  captains,  dying  on  the  field  of  battle,  con- 
fessed themselves  on  the  cross  of  their  sword-hilts; 
they  made  of  it  a  trusty  confidant  between  themselves 
and  God.  Now,  you,  one  of  Napoleon's  best  blades, 
you,  strong  and  hard  as  steel,  perhaps  you  will  well 
understand  me?  In  order  to  be  interested  in  my 
recital,  it  is  necessary  to  enter  into  certain  delicacies 
of  sentiment,  and  to  share  in  the  beliefs  natural 
to  simple  hearts,  but  which  would  appear  absurd  to 
many  philosophers  accustomed  to  make  use,  for  their 
private  interests,  of  maxims  usually  reserved  for  the 
government  of  States.  I  am  going  to  speak  to  you 
in  good  faith,  like  a  man  who  wishes  to  justify 
neither  the  good  nor  the  evil  of  his  life,  but  who  will 
conceal  nothing  from  you,  because  he-  is  to-day  far 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  253 

from  the  world,  indifferent  to  the  judgment  of  men, 
and  full  of  hope  in  God." 

Benassis  stopped,  then  he  rose,  saying: 

"  Before  taking  up  my  story,  I  am  going  to  order 
the  tea.  For  the  last  twelve  years  Jacquotte  has 
never  failed  to  come  to  ask  me  if  I  would  take 
it,  she  will  certainly  interrupt  us.  Will  you  have 
some,  captain.?" 

"No,  I  thank  you." 

Benassis  quickly  returned. 


IV 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR'S   CONFESSION 

"I  was  born,"  began  the  doctor,  "in  a  small 
town  in  Languedoc,  where  my  father  had  long  been 
settled,  and  where  my  early  years  were  passed. 
At  the  age  of  eight  I  was  sent  to  school  at  Sorr^ze, 
and  left  there  only  to  complete  my  studies  in  Paris. 
My  father  had  had  the  wildest  and  most  extravagant 
youth;  but  his  squandered  patrimony  was  rehabili- 
tated by  a  fortunate  marriage,  and  by  the  slow 
process  of  saving  practised  in  the  provinces,  where 
wealth,  not  extravagance,  is  the  source  of  vanity, 
where  the  ambition  natural  to  mankind  disappears 
and  turns  to  avarice,  for  lack  of  generous  food. 
Having  become  rich,  and  having  but  one  son,  he  ' 
determined  to  transmit  to  him  the  cold  indifference 
born  of  experience,  for  which  he  had  exchanged  his 
vanished  illusions:  the  last  and  noble  error  of  old 
"men,  who  try  in  vain  to  bequeath  their  virtues  and 
their  prudent  habit  of  counting  the  cost  to  children 
who  are  enchanted  with  life  and  in  haste  to  enjoy.  U 
That  foresight  led  to  the  adoption  of  a  plan  for  / 
my  education  to  which  I  fell  a  victim.  My  father 
concealed  from  me  the  extent  of  his  wealth,  and 
condemned  me,  in  my  own  interest,  to  undergo, 
(255) 


256  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

during  my  best  years,  the  privations  and  anxieties  of 
a  young  man  determined  to  win  his  own  independ- 
ence; he  wished  to  inculcate  in  me  the  virtues  of 
poverty:  patience,  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  love 
of  work. 

"  By  teaching  me  thus  to  appreciate  wealth  at  its 
true  value,  he  hoped  to  teach  me  to  respect  my 
inheritance;  and  so,  as  soon  as  I  was  in  a  position 
to  listen  to  his  advice,  he  urged  me  to  adopt  and 
follow  some  career.  My  tastes  inclined  me  to  the 
study  of  medicine.  From  Sorr^ze,  where  1  had 
remained  ten  years  subject  to  the  semi-conventual 
discipline  of  the  Orator ians,  and  buried  in  the  soli- 
tude of  a  provincial  school,  I  was  taken,  without 
any  transition,  to  the  capital.  My  father  accom- 
panied me,  to  place  me  in  charge  of  one  of  his 
friends.  The  two  old  men,  without  my  knowledge, 
took  minute  precautions  against  the  effervescence 
of  my  youth,  at  that  time  very  innocent.  My 
allowance  was  adapted  strictly  to  the  real  necessi- 
ties of  life,  and  1  was  to  receive  the  quarterly 
payments  only  upon  presentation  of  receipts  for  my 
fee-bills  at  the  School  of  Medicine.  This  decidedly 
insulting  distrust  was  disguised  under  pretexts  re- 
lating to  the  orderly  keeping  of  accounts.  My  father 
was  quite  liberal,  however,  in  the  matter  of  all  the 
outlay  made  necessary  by  my  education  and  in  the 
matter  of  the  pleasures  of  Parisian  life.  His  old 
friend,  who  was  delighted  to  have  a  young  man 
to  guide  through  the  labyrinth  I  was  about  to  enter, 
was  one  of  those  men  who  classify  their  sentiments 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  257 

as  carefully  as  they  arrange  their  papers.  On 
consulting  his  memoranda  for  the  past  year,  he 
could  always  tell  what  he  was  doing  at  the  hour  of 
the  day  and  day  of  the  month  corresponding  to 
the  time  at  which  he  consulted  them.  Life  to 
him  was  like  a  business  undertaking  of  which  he 
kept  the  accounts.  A  man  of  considerable  merit, 
but  shrewd,  over-precise,  and  suspicious,  he  never 
lacked  specious  reasons  for  explaining  away  the 
precautions  he  took  in  my  regard;  he  bought  my 
books,  he  paid  for  my  tuition;  when  I  wanted  to 
learn  to  ride,  the  good  man  himself  made  inquiries  as 
to  the  best  school,  took  me  there,  and  anticipated  my 
wishes  by  placing  a  horse  at  my  disposal  for  holi- 
days. Despite  that  old  man's  strategy,  which  I 
was  able  to  defeat  as  soon  as  I  had  any  interest 
in  contending  with  him,  the  excellent  man  was  a 
second  father  to  me. 

"  *  My  dear  boy,'  he  said  to  me,  when  he  realized 
that  I  should  break  my  leash  if  he  did  not  lengthen 
it,  '  young  men  often  do  foolish  things  into  which 
youthful  impetuosity  leads  them,  and  it  may  happen 
that  you  will  at  some  time  be  in  need  of  money;  in 
that  case,  come  to  me.  Long  ago  your  father  cour- 
teously did  me  a  great  favor,  and  I  shall  always 
have  a  crown  or  two  at  your  disposal;  but  never  lie 
to  me,  don't  be  ashamed  to  confess  your  mistakes; 
I  have  been  young  myself,  and  we  shall  always 
understand  each  other,  like  two  good  friends.' 

"  My  father  installed  me  in  a  bourgeois  board- 
ing-house in  the  Latin  Quarter,  with  a  respectable 
17 


258  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

family,  where  I  had  a  reasonably  well-furnished 
room.  And  yet  that  first  experience  of  independ- 
ence, my  father's  kindness,  the  sacrifice  he  seemed 
to  be  making  for  me,  caused  me  little  satisfaction. 
Perhaps  one  must  have  enjoyed  liberty  to  appreciate 
it  at  its  true  value.  But  the  memory  of  my  inde- 
pendent childhood  was  almost  effaced  under  the 
weight  of  the  ennui  of  my  school-days,  which  my 
mind  had  not  yet  shaken  off;  moreover,  my  father's 
instructions  pointed  to  new  tasks  for  me  to  perform; 
and,  lastly,  Paris  was  to  me  like  an  enigma,  one  cannot 
enjoy  one's  self  there  without  having  made  a  study 
of  its  amusements.  So  I  saw  little  change  in  my 
position  except  that  my  present  institution  was  more 
extensive  and  was  called  the  School  of  Medicine. 
However,  I  studied  bravely  at  first,  I  attended  the 
lectures  assiduously;  I  threw  myself  into  my  work, 
body  and  soul,  without  taking  any  relaxation,  the 
treasures  of  knowledge  in  which  the  capital  abounds 
so  excited  my  imagination.  But  soon  imprudent 
intimacies,  whose  dangers  were  veiled  by  the  fool- 
ishly trustful  friendship  that  seduces  all  young  men, 
led  me  insensibly  into  Parisian  dissipation.  Theatres 
and  actors,  for  whom  I  had  a  passionate  admiration, 
began  the  work  of  my  demoralization.  The  theat- 
rical performances  of  a  capital  have  a  very  baleful 
influence  on  young  men,  who  never  go  out  from 
them  without  keen  emotions  against  which  they 
struggle  unavailingly  almost  always,  and  society 
and  the  laws  seem  to  me  to  share  the  responsibility 
for  the  faults  which  they  commit  at  such  times. 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  259 

Our  legislation  has  closed  its  eyes,  so  to  speak,  to 
the  passions  which  torment  the  young  man  between 
twenty  and  twenty-five.  In  Paris  everything  assails 
him,  his  appetites  are  constantly  appealed  to;  re- 
ligion preaches  virtue  to  him,  the  laws  enjoin  it, 
while  facts  and  customs  invite  him  to  vice;  do  not 
the  most  virtuous  man  and  the  most  devout  woman 
laugh  at  continence?  In  fact,  the  great  city  seems 
to  have  made  it  its  duty  to  encourage  only  vices,  for 
the  obstacles  which  at  the  outset  debar  a  young  man 
from  the  professions  in  which  he  can  honorably 
make  a  fortune  are  even  more  numerous  than  the 
snares  constantly  laid  for  his  passions  in  order  to 
rob  him  of  his  money. 

**  For  a  long  time,  then,  I  went  to  some  theatre 
every  evening,  and  gradually  contracted  habits  of 
idleness.  I  compounded  with  my  duties,  I  often  put 
off  my  most  urgent  occupations  until  the  next  day; 
soon,  instead  of  trying  to  learn,  I  did  only  so  much 
as  was  absolutely  necessary  to  obtain  the  degrees 
that  I  must  obtain  in  order  to  be  a  doctor.  At  the 
public  lectures  I  no  longer  listened  to  the  professors, 
who,  as  I  declared,  talked  nonsense,  I  was  already 
shattering  my  idols,  I  was  becoming  a  Parisian.  In 
short,  I  led  the  aimless  life  of  a  young  man  from  the 
provinces,  who,  being  turned  adrift  in  the  capital, 
still  retains  some  worthy  sentiments,  still  believes  in 
certain  moral  rules,  but  who  is  corrupted  by  bad  ex- 
amples, even  while  having  a  disposition  to  defend 
himself  against  them.  I  made  a  weak  defence,  I 
had  accomplices  within.     Yes,  monsieur,  my  face  is 


26o  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

not  misleading,  I  have  had  all  the  passions  whose 
marks  still  remain  upon  me.  And  yet  I  preserved 
in  the  depths  of  my  heart  a  feeling  of  moral  perfec- 
tion which  followed  me  throughout  my  disorderly 
life  and  which  was  destined  to  lead  back  to  God,  by 
the  way  of  weariness  and  remorse,  the  man  whose 
youth  had  quenched  its  thirst  with  the  pure  waters 
of  religion.  Is  not  he  who  keenly  enjoys  earthly 
pleasures,  attracted  sooner  or  later  by  a  longing  for 
the  fruits  of  Heaven.?  I  experienced  at  first  the 
innumerable  joys,  the  innumerable  agonies  of  de- 
spair which  are  found,  more  or  less  active,  in  all 
youthful  lives;  sometimes  I  mistook  the  conscious- 
ness of  my  strength  for  a  determined  will,  and 
deceived  myself  as  to  the  extent  of  my  faculties; 
sometimes,  at  sight  of  the  most  trivial  obstacle  with 
which  I  was  about  to  come  in  contact,  I  fell  much 
lower  than  I  should  naturally  have  fallen;  I  con- 
ceived the  most  immense  schemes,  I  dreamed  of 
glory,  I  made  great  preparations  for  work;  but  a 
pleasure  party  would  put  those  noble  resolutions  to 
flight.  The  vague  remembrance  of  my  grand  but 
abortive  conceptions  left  in  my  mind  deceptive 
gleams  which  accustomed  me  to  believe  in  myself, 
without  supplying  me  with  the  requisite  energy  to 
produce.  That  self-sufficient  indolence  resulted  in 
my  becoming  a  mere  fool.  Is  not  he  a  fool  who 
does  nothing  to  justify  the  good  opinion  he  forms  of 
himself.?  Such  activity  as  I  manifested  was  pur- 
poseless, I  desired  the  flowers  of  life  without  the 
work  that  makes  them  bloom.      Knowing  nothing 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  261 

of  obstacles,  I  believed  that  everything  was  easy, 
I  attributed  to  good  luck  the  triumphs  of  science  and 
the  triumphs  of  fortune.  To  my  mind  genius  was 
charlatanism!  1  imagined  that  I  was  a  scholar,  be- 
cause it  was  in  my  power  to  become  one;  and  with- 
out a  thought  either  of  the  patience  that  produces 
great  works,  or  of  the  good  sense  that  discloses  their 
difficulties,  I  discounted  all  forms  of  glory. 

"My  pleasures  were  speedily  exhausted,  the  the- 
atre does  not  amuse  one  for  long;  Paris  therefore 
soon  seemed  empty  and  deserted  to  a  poor  student 
whose  society  consisted  of  an  old  man  who  had  for- 
gotten all  that  he  ever  knew,  and  a  family  where  he 
met  only  tiresome  people.  And  so,  like  all  young 
men  who  are  disgusted  with  the  career  they  have 
adopted,  but  have  no  fixed  idea  nor  any  course  of 
action  decided  upon  in  their  minds,  I  wandered  for 
hours  at  a  time  about  the  streets  and  quays,  through 
the  museums  and  public  gardens.  When  one's 
time  is  unemployed,  it  hangs  heavier  at  that  age 
than  at  any  other,  for  life  is  then  overflowing  with 
wasted  sap  and  with  aimless  activity.  I  failed 
to  appreciate  the  power  that  a  firm  will  places  in 
the  hands  of  the  young  man  when  he  has  the 
intellect  to  conceive,  and  when  he  has  at  his 
disposal,  to  carry  out  his  conceptions,  all  the  vital 
forces,  augmented  by  the  fearless  faith  of  youth. 
As  children,  we  are  innocent,  we  know  nothing  of 
the  dangers  of  life;  as  young  men,  we  perceive  its 
difficulties  and  its  vast  scope:  at  that  discovery  the 
courage  sometimes  fails;  being  still  new  to  the  trade 


262  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

of  social  life,  we  remain  under  the  influence  of  a  sort 
of  idiocy,  a  feeling  of  stupor,  as  if  we  were  friendless 
in  a  strange  land.  At  every  age  the  unknown  causes 
involuntary  terror.  The  young  man  is  like  the 
soldier  who  marches  boldly  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth 
and  runs  away  from  a  ghost.  He  hesitates  between 
the  maxims  of  the  world;  he  does  not  know  how 
either  to  give  or  to  accept,  to  defend  himself  or  to 
attack;  he  loves  women  and  respects  them  as  if  he 
were  afraid  of  them;  his  good  qualities  serve  him  ill; 
he  is  all  generosity,  all  modesty,  and  untainted  by 
the  selfish  scheming  of  avarice;  if  he  lies,  it  is  for 
his  pleasure,  not  for  gain;  his  conscience,  with  which 
he  has  not  yet  compounded,  points  him  to  the  right 
road  among  many  doubtful  ones,  and  he  delays  to 
follow  it. 

"  Men  destined  to  be  guided  by  inspirations  of  the 
heart,  instead  of  listening  to  the  projects  that  ema- 
nate from  the  brain,  remain  for  a  long  time  in  that 
situation.  That  was  my  case.  I  became  the  play- 
thing of  two  opposing  causes.  I  was  simultaneously 
spurred  on  by  a  young  man's  passions  and  held  back 
by  his  sentimental  idiocy.  The  emotions  of  Paris 
have  a  cruel  effect  upon  minds  endowed  with  keen 
sensibility:  the  advantages  which  those  of  superior 
mind  or  the  rich  enjoy  incite  their  passions;  in  this 
world  of  greatness  and  pettiness,  jealousy  acts  more 
frequently  as  a  dagger  than  as  a  spur;  amid  the  con- 
stant conflict  of  ambitions,  desires,  and  enmities,  it 
is  impossible  not  to  be  either  the  victim  or  the 
accomplice  of  this  general  tendency;  the  constant 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  263 

picture  of  happy  vice  and  virtue  ridiculed,  insensibly 
makes  a  young  man  waver;  Parisian  life  soon  rubs 
the  gloss  off  his  conscience;  thereupon  the  infernal 
process  of  demoralization  begins  and  is  consummated. 
The  first  of  pleasures,  that  which,  at  the  outset,  in- 
cludes all  others,  is  surrounded  by  such  perils  that  it 
is  impossible  not  to  reflect  on  the  most  trivial  actions 
it  provokes,  and  not  to  calculate  all  their  conse- 
quences. Such  calculations  lead  to  selfishness.  If 
some  poor  student,  carried  away  by  the  impetuosity 
of  his  passions,  is  disposed  to  forget  himself,  those 
who  surround  him  display  and  inspire  so  much  dis- 
trust, that  it  is  very  difficult  for  him  not  to  share  it, 
not  to  put  himself  on  his  guard  against  ennobling 
ideas.  The  conflict  withers  and  contracts  the  heart, 
drives  life  to  the  brain,  and  produces  that  Parisian 
insensibility,  that  moral  state,  wherein  policy  or 
money  lies  hidden  beneath  the  most  charming  fri- 
volity, beneath  extravagant  demonstrations  which 
mimic  lofty  sentiments.  But  the  intoxication  of  hap- 
piness does  not  prevent  the  most  ingenuous  woman 
from  retaining  her  faculties. 

"  That  atmosphere  was  certain  to  influence  my 
conduct  and  my  sentiments.  The  errors  that 
poisoned  my  life  would  have  weighed  lightly  on 
the  hearts  of  many  men;  but  we  of  the  South 
have  a  religious  faith  which  makes  us  believe  in 
the  truths  of  the  Catholic  religion  and  in  a  future 
life.  This  faith  imparts  great  depth  to  our  passions 
and  great  persistency  to  our  remorse.  At  the  period 
when  I  was  studying  medicine,  the  soldiers  were 


264  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

masters  everywhere;  in  order  to  make  an  impres- 
sion on  the  ladies,  one  must  be  at  least  a  colonel. 
What  did  a  poor  student  amount  to  in  society? 
nothing.  Feeling  keenly  the  stimulus  of  my  ardent 
passions  and  finding  no  outlet  for  them;  restrained 
at  every  step,  at  every  wish,  by  lack  of  money; 
regarding  study  and  glory  as  a  too  dilatory  means 
of  procuring  the  pleasures  which  tempted  me; 
wavering  between  my  secret  modesty  and  the  evil 
examples  I  had  before  me;  finding  every  facility  for 
dissipation  in  low  life,  and  nothing  but  obstacles  to 
gaining  admission  to  good  society,  1  passed  many 
melancholy  days,  a  prey  to  the  surges  of  passion,  to 
the  idleness  that  kills,  to  fits  of  discouragement  inter- 
spersed with  moments  of  sudden  exaltation.  This 
crisis  came  to  an  end  at  last  in  a  way  not  at  all 
uncommon  among  young  men.  I  have  always  had 
the  greatest  repugnance  to  disturbing  the  happiness 
of  a  household;  moreover,  my  natural  outspoken- 
ness makes  it  impossible  for  me  to  conceal  my  senti- 
ments; it  would  have  been,  therefore,  a  physical 
impossibility  for  me  to  live  in  a  condition  of  flagrant 
falsehood.  Pleasures  snatched  in  haste  have  little 
attraction  for  me,  I  like  to  relish  happiness.  Not 
being  openly  vicious,  I  found  myself  without  protec- 
tion against  my  isolation,  after  so  many  unavailing 
efforts  to  make  my  way  into  the  best  society,  where 
I  might  have  met  a  woman  who  would  have  devoted 
herself  to  explaining  to  me  the  dangers  of  each  road, 
to  giving  me  excellent  manners,  to  advising  me 
without  offending  my  pride,  and  to  introducing  me 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  265 

wherever  I  might  have  formed  connections  likely  to 
be  of  benefit  to  me  in  the  future.  In  my  despair  the 
most  hazardous  of  liaisons  would,  perhaps,  have 
attracted  me;  but  everything  failed  me,  even 
danger!  and  inexperience  brought  me  back  to  my 
solitude,  where  I  remained  face  to  face  with  my 
betrayed  passions. 

"At  last,  monsieur,  I  formed  a  liaison,  secret  at 
first,  with  a  young  woman  whom  I  persistently 
assailed  until  she  espoused  my  lot.  That  young 
woman,  who  belonged  to  a  respectable  but  far  from 
wealthy  family,  soon  abandoned  for  my  sake  her 
modest  life  and  fearlessly  entrusted  to  me  a  future 
which  her  virtue  had  made  bright  with  promise. 
The  mediocrity  of  my  condition  seemed  to  her,  I 
doubt  not,  the  surest  of  safeguards.  From  that 
moment,  the  storms  that  caused  a  constant  tur- 
moil in  my  heart,  my  extravagant  longings,  my 
ambition,  all  were  allayed  by  pure  happiness,  the 
happiness  of  a  young  man  who  as  yet  knows  neither 
the  ways  of  the  world,  nor  its  maxims  of  order,  nor 
the  force  of  prejudices;  but  absolute  happiness,  like 
that  of  a  child.  What  is  first  love  but  a  second 
childhood  cast  athwart  on  days  of  toil  and  suffering.? 
There  are  men  who  learn  the  whole  of  life  at  one 
stroke,  judge  it  as  it  is,  detect  the  errors  of  the 
world  to  profit  by  them,  grasp  its  social  precepts 
in  order  to  turn  them  to  their  advantage,  and  who 
are  able  to  estimate  the  scope  "of  everything. 
Such  cool,  calculating  men  are  wise  according  to 
the  laws  of  mankind.     Again,  there  are  poor  poets, 


266  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

nervous  creatures,  who  feel  keenly  and  make  mis- 
takes; I  was  of  these  last.  My  first  attachment  was 
not,  to  begin  with,  a  real  passion;  I  followed  my  in- 
stinct, not  my  heart.  I  sacrificed  a  poor  girl  to  my- 
self, and  I  did  not  lack  excellent  reasons  to  persuade 
myself  that  I  was  doing  nothing  wrong.  As  for  her, 
she  was  devotion  itself,  a  heart  of  gold,  a  judicious 
mind,  a  beautiful  soul.  She  never  gave  me  any  but 
excellent  advice.  At  first  her  love  rekindled  my 
courage;  then  she  gently  led  me  to  resume  my 
studies,  believing  fully  in  me  and  predicting  success, 
glory,  and  fortune  for  me.  To-day  medical  science 
is  connected  with  all  the  sciences,  and  to  distinguish 
one's  self  in  it  is  a  difficult  but  handsomely  rewarded 
task.  Renown  always  means  fortune  in  Paris.  That 
excellent  girl  forgot  herself  for  me,  she  shared  my 
life  in  all  its  caprices,  and  her  economy  enabled  us 
to  live  comfortably  upon  my  moderate  means,  I  had 
more  money  for  my  whims  when  there  were  two  of 
us  than  when  1  was  alone.  Those  were  my  best 
days,  monsieur.  I  worked  zealously,  I  had  an  object, 
I  was  encouraged;  I  attributed  my  thoughts  and  my 
acts  to  a  person  who  knew  how  to  make  me  love  her, 
and,  better  still,  to  inspire  in  me  profound  esteem  by 
the  prudence  she  displayed  in  a  position  where  pru- 
dence seems  impossible.  But  all  my  days  were  ex- 
actly alike,  monsieur!  That  monotonous  happiness, 
the  most  delightful  condition  imaginable,  whose  true 
value  is  appreciated  only  after  one  has  experienced 
all  the  tempests  of  the  heart — ^that  sweet  state  in 
which  the  fatigue  of  living  is  no  more,  in  which  the 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  267 

most  secret  thoughts  are  exchanged,  in  which  one  is 
understood:  ah!  to  a  man  of  ardent  temperament, 
hungry  for  social  distinctions,  who  had  wearied  of 
pursuing  fame  because  it  moves  too  slowly,  to  such 
a  man  that  sort  of  happiness  was  soon  a  burden. 
My  former  dreams  assailed  me  anew.  I  had  a  fierce 
longing  for  the  pleasures  of  wealth,  and  demanded 
them  in  the  name  of  love.  I  frankly  expressed  these 
desires  one  evening,  when  I  was  questioned  by  a 
loving  voice  just  at  the  moment  when,  in  pensive 
and  melancholy  mood,  I  was  absorbed  in  the  delights 
of  imaginary  wealth.  Doubtless  my  remarks  made 
the  poor  creature  wince  who  had  sacrificed  herself  to 
my  welfare.  To  her  it  was  the  bitterest  of  sorrows 
to  have  me  wish  for  something  that  she  could  not 
give  on  the  instant.  Oh!  monsieur,  the  devotion  of 
woman  is  sublime!" 

That  exclamation  from  the  physician  was  called 
forth  by  some  secret  bitterness  of  spirit,  for  he  fell 
into  a  brief  reverie  which  Genestas  did  not  inter- 
rupt. 

"Well,  monsieur,"  Benassis  resumed,  "an  event 
which  should  have  consummated  that  inchoate  mar- 
riage destroyed  it,  and  was  the  prime  cause  of  my 
misfortunes.  My  father  died,  leaving  a  considerable 
fortune;  the  settlement  of  his  estate  required  my 
presence  for  some  months  in  Languedoc,  and  I  went 
there  alone.  Thus  I  resumed  my  liberty.  Any  sort 
of  obligation,  even  the  least  oppressive,  is  a  burden 
when  one  is  young :  one  must  have  had  experi- 
ence of  life  to  realize  the  necessity  of  a  yoke  and 


268  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

of  work.  With  all  the  vivacity  of  a  Languedocian, 
I  enjoyed  the  going  in  and  out  without  having  to 
account  for  my  acts  to  anybody,  even  of  my  own 
free  will.  If  I  did  not  entirely  forget  the  ties  I  had 
contracted,  I  was  occupied  with  affairs  which  diverted 
my  mind  from  them,  and  the  memory  of  them  insen- 
sibly grew  fainter.  I  could  not  think,  without  an  un- 
pleasant sensation,  of  resuming  them  on  my  return; 
then  I  would  ask  myself  why  I  should  resume  them. 
Meanwhile,  I  received  letters  bearing  the  stamp  of 
true  affection;  but,  at  twenty -two,  a  young  man 
fancies  that  all  women  are  equally  affectionate;  he 
does  not  as  yet  know  how  to  distinguish  between 
the  heart  and  passion;  he  confounds  everything  with 
the  sensations  of  pleasure,  which  seem  at  first  to  in- 
clude everything;  not  until  later,  when  I  was  better 
acquainted  with  men  and  things,  was  I  able  to  appre- 
ciate the  genuine  nobleness  of  those  letters,  in  which 
no  thought  of  self  was  mingled  with  the  expression 
of  the  writer's  feelings,  in  which  she  rejoiced  for  my 
sake  in  my  good  fortune,  in  which  she  deplored  it  on 
her  own  account,  in  which  there  was  no  word  sug- 
gesting that  I  could  ever  change,  because  she  knew 
that  she  was  incapable  of  changing.  But  I  was 
already  deep  in  ambitious  schemes,  and  thinking  of 
plunging  into  the  joys  of  the  wealthy,  of  becoming  a 
personage,  of  making  a  fine  match.  I  contented  my- 
self with  saying:  'She  loves  me  dearly!'  with  the 
cool  fatuity  of  a  coxcomb.  Already  I  was  perplexed 
to  know  how  I  should  get  clear  of  that  liaison.  That 
perplexity,  that  shame,  led  to  brutality;  to  avoid 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  269 

blushing  before  his  victim,  the  man  who  has  begun 
by  wounding  her,  kills  her.  The  reflections  I  have 
since  indulged  in  concerning  those  days  of  sad  mis- 
takes have  revealed  to  me  several  abysses  of  the 
heart.  Believe  me,  monsieur,  the  persons  who  have 
probed  deepest  the  vices  and  virtues  of  human  na- 
ture are  those  who  have  studied  them  in  themselves 
with  good  faith.  One's  conscience  is  the  starting- 
point.  We  reason  from  ourselves  to  other  men, 
never  from  other  men  to  ourselves.  When  I  returned 
to  Paris,  I  took  up  my  abode  in  a  house  which  I  had 
hired  through  an  agent,  without  a  word  of  warning 
either  of  my  change  of  domicile  or  of  my  return,  to 
the  only  person  who  was  interested.  I  desired  to 
play  a  leading  part  among  the  young  men  of  fashion. 
"After  1  had  enjoyed  for  some  days  the  first  de- 
lights of  opulence,  and  when  I  was  sufficiently  in- 
toxicated with  them  to  be  sure  of  not  weakening,  I 
went  to  call  upon  the  poor  creature  whom  1  proposed 
to  abandon.  With  the  aid  of  the  natural  shrewdness 
of  woman,  she  divined  my  secret  sentiments  and  con- 
cealed her  tears  from  me.  She  must  have  despised 
me;  but  she  was  always  sweet  and  affectionate,  and 
never  gave  any  sign  of  contempt.  That  indulgence 
tortured  me  cruelly.  We  assassins  of  the  salon  or 
the  highway  like. to  have  our  victims  defend  them- 
selves, for  then  the  struggle  seems  to  justify  their 
death.  At  first  I  ostentatiously  resumed  my  visits. 
If  I  was  not  affectionate,  I  tried  to  appear  amiable; 
then  I  insensibly  became  coldly  polite;  one  day,  by  a 
sort  of  tacit  agreement,  she  allowed  me  to  treat  her  as 


270  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

a  stranger,  and  1  thought  that  I  had  acted  very  prop- 
erly. Nevertheless,  I  plunged  almost  with  frenzy 
into  society,  in  order  to  stifle  in  its  festivities  what 
little  remorse  I  still  felt.  The  man  who  does  not 
esteem  himself  cannot  bear  to  live  alone,  so  1  led  the 
dissipated  life  that  young  men  of  wealth  lead  in  Paris. 
As  I  had  an  excellent  education  and  a  good  memory, 
I  seemed  to  have  more  intellect  than  I  really  had, 
and  thereupon  fancied  myself  superior  to  my  fellows: 
those  persons  who  were  interested  in  proving  to  me 
that  I  was  a  superior  creature  found  me  convinced 
of  it  beforehand.  This  superiority  was  so  readily 
acknowledged  that  I  did  not  even  take  the  pains  to 
demonstrate  it.  Of  all  the  underhand  devices  known 
to  the  world,  praise  is  the  most  adroitly  treacherous. 
At  Paris,  especially,  politicians  of  every  sort  know 
how  to  stifle  talent  at  its  birth  by  tossing  a  profusion 
of  wreaths  into  its  cradle.  So  that  I  did  not  do  honor 
to  my  reputation,  I  did  not  take  advantage  of  my 
popularity  to  make  an  opening  for  myself,  nor  did  I 
form  any  profitable  connections.  I  indulged  in  count- 
less frivolities  of  all  sorts.  I  enjoyed  some  of  those 
ephemeral  passions  which  are  the  shame  of  Parisian 
salons,  where  everyone  goes  about  in  search  of  a 
genuine  passion,  becomes  surfeited  while  in  pursuit 
of  it,  becomes  a  fashionable  libertine,  and  reaches  a 
point  where  he  is  as  much  surprised  at  a  real  passion 
as  the  world  at  a  noble  action.  1  imitated  the  rest, 
I  frequently  wounded  innocent  and  noble-minded 
souls  by  the  same  blows  that  secretly  tortured  my- 
self. 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  27I 

'*  Notwithstanding  these  false  appearances,  which 
caused  me  to  be  judged  unfavorably,  there  was 
within  me  an  unconquerable  delicacy  of  feeling 
which  I  always  obeyed.  I  was  deceived  on  many 
occasions  when  I  should  have  blushed  not  to  be,  and 
I  discredited  myself  by  the  good  faith  for  which  I 
inwardly  applauded  myself. — In  truth,  the  world 
has  great  respect  for  cleverness  in  whatever  guise  it 
shows  itself.  So  far  as  the  world  is  concerned,  the 
result  determines  the  law  in  everything.  So  it 
attributed  to  me  vices  and  virtues,  triumphs  and 
defeats,  which  I  did  not  deserve;  it  gave  me  credit 
for  successes  in  the  line  of  making  love  of  which  I 
knew  nothing;  it  blamed  me  for  actions  of  which 
I  had  never  heard.  Through  pride  I  disdained  to 
contradict  the  slanders,  and  through  self-esteem  I 
accepted  falsehoods  that  were  favorable  to  me.  My 
life  was  apparently  happy,  in  reality,  wretched. 
Except  for  the  disasters  that  soon  burst  upon  me, 
I  should  gradually  have  lost  all  my  good  qualities 
and  allowed  the  evil  ones  to  triumph  by  the  constant 
activity  of  my  passions,  by  excessive  indulgence  in 
pleasures  which  weaken  the  body,  and  by  the  de- 
testable habits  of  selfishness  which  wear  out  the 
springs  of  the  mind.  1  ruined  myself.  This  is  how 
I  did  i^i  In  Paris,  however  great  a  man's  fortune 
may  be,  he  always  falls  in  with  a  greater  one  which 
he  takes^for  his  objective  point  and  which  he  tries  to 
surpass.  ,Defeated  in  that  contest,  as  so  many 
other  scatterbrains  have  been,  I  was  obliged,  after 
four  years,  to  sell  some  securities  and  pledge  others. 


272  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

Then  I  received  a  terrible  blow.  For  nearly  two 
years  I  had  not  seen  the  young  woman  I  had  aban- 
doned; but  at  the  rate  at  which  I  was  going,  misfor- 
tune would  doubtless  have  sent  me  back  to  her. 
One  night,  in  the  midst  of  a  merry  party,  I  received 
a  note,  scrawled  by  a  feeble  hand,  and  containing 
nearly  these  words: 

"'I  have  only  a  few  moments  to  live ;  I  would  like  to  see 
you,  my  friend,  to  find  out  what  my  child's  fate  is  to  be, 
whether  he  is  to  be  your  child ;  and  also  to  soften  the  regret 
you  might  some  day  feel  for  my  death.' 

"  That  letter  froze  my  blood,  it  revealed  the 
secret  pangs  of  the  past,  even  as  it  concealed  the 
mysteries  of  the  future.  I  went  out  on  foot,  not 
waiting  for  my  carriage,  and  walked  all  the  way 
across  Paris,  driven  by  my  remorse,  in  the  grasp  of 
a  violent  first  impulse,  which  became  a  lasting  senti- 
ment as  soon  as  1  saw  my  victim.  The  exquisite 
neatness  beneath  which  her  poverty  concealed  itself 
depicted  the  intense  suffering  of  her  life:  she  spared 
my  shame  by  referring  to  it  with  noble  reserve 
when  I  had  solemnly  promised  to  adopt  our  child. 
That  woman  died,  monsieur,  in  spite  of  all  the  care 
and  attention  I  lavished  upon  her,  in  spite  of  all 
the  resources  of  science  to  which  I  appealed  in  vain. 
Those  attentions,  that  belated  devotion,  served  only 
to  make  her  last  moments  less  bitter.  She  had 
worked  incessantly  in  order  to  support  and  bring  up 
her  child.  The  maternal  sentiment  had  been  strong 
enough  to  sustain   her   against    poverty,   but   not 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  273 

against  the  most  poignant  of  tier  sorrows,  my  deser- 
tion. A  hundred  times  she  had  tried  to  communicate 
with  me,  a  hundred  times  her  pride  had  held  her 
back;  she  contented  herself  with  weeping,  but  with- 
out cursing  me,  reflecting  that  of  all  the  gold  poured 
forth  in  floods  to  gratify  my  caprices  not  a  single 
drop  was  diverted  from  its  course  by  a  memory,  to 
fall  into  her  poor  household  and  assist  in  keeping 
life  in  a  mother  and  her  child.  That  terrible  mis- 
fortune had  seemed  to  her  the  natural  punishment 
of  her  sin.  Assisted  by  a  kind-hearted  priest  from 
Saint-Sulpice,  whose  indulgent  voice  had  restored 
her  tranquillity,  she  had  gone  to  the  altar  to  wipe 
her  tears  away  and  to  find  hope.  The  flood  of  bit- 
terness poured  into  her  heart  by  me  had  gradually 
abated.  One  day,  upon  hearing  her  son  say:  'Father,* 
a  word  that  she  had  not  taught  him,  she  forgave  me 
for  her  sin.  But  in  tears  and  sorrow,  in  hard  work, 
night  and  day,  her  health  had  failed.  Religion 
brought  her  too  late  its  consolation  and  the  courage 
to  endure  the  hardships  of  life.  She  was  attacked 
by  a  disease  of  the  heart,  caused  by  her  mental 
suffering,  by  the  constant  anticipation  of  my  return, 
a  hope  always  disappointed,  but  always  renewed. 
At  last,  realizing  that  she  was  in  extremis,  she  had 
written  me  from  her  death-bed  those  few  words, 
entirely  free  from  reproach,  and  dictated  by  religion, 
but  partly  also  by  her  belief  in  my  kindness.  She 
knew,  she  said,  that  I  was  blind  rather  than  wicked; 
she  went  so  far  as  to  accuse  herself  of  having 
carried  her  womanly  pride  too  far. 
18 


274  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  '  If  I  had  written  sooner,'  she  said,  '  perhaps  we 
should  have  had  time  to  legitimize  our  child  by  being 
married.' 

"  She  desired  that  ceremony  only  for  her  son's  sake, 
and  would  not  have  asked  it  had  she  not  felt  that  it 
was  already  dissolved  by  death.  But  there  was  not 
time,  she  had  only  a  few  hours  to  live.  Beside  that 
bed,  monsieur,  where  I  learned  to  know  the  value 
of  a  devoted  heart,  my  sentiments  underwent  a  last- 
ing transformation.  I  was  at  an  age  when  there  are 
still  tears  in  the  eyes.  During  the  last  days  of  that 
precious  life,  my  words,  my  actions,  and  my  tears 
attested  the  repentance  of  a  man  stricken  to  the 
heart.  I  recognized  too  late  the  exceptional  nature 
which  the  trivialities  of  society,  the  emptiness,  the 
egotism  of  women  of  fashion,  had  taught  me  to 
desire,  to  seek.  Weary  of  looking  at  so  many 
masks,  weary  of  listening  to  so  many  falsehoods,  I 
had  summoned  the  true  love  of  which  artificial  pas- 
sions made  me  dream;  I  admired  it  as  it  lay  there, 
slain  by  me,  powerless  to  detain  it  by  my  side 
although  it  was  so  wholly  mine.  An  experience  of 
four  years  had  revealed  to  me  my  real  character. 
My  disposition,  the  nature  of  my  imagination,  my 
religious  principles,  sleeping  rather  than  destroyed, 
the  character  of  my  mind,  my  misunderstood  heart, 
everything  about  me  had  disposed  me,  for  some 
time  past,  to  solve  the  problem  of  my  life  by  joys  of 
the  heart,  and  the  problem  of  passion  by  family 
joys,  the  most  real  of  all.  The  result  of  strug- 
gling about  in  the  void  of  an  agitated,  purposeless 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  275 

existence,  of  forcing  pleasures  that  are  always  lack- 
ing in  the  sentiments  that  should  embellish  them,  was 
that  the  images  of  domestic  life  aroused  my  liveliest 
emotions.  Thus  the  revolution  that  took  place  in 
my  habits  was  lasting,  although  sudden.  My  south- 
ern nature,  adulterated  by  residence  in  Paris, 
would  certainly  have  led  me  to  feel  no  pity  for 
the  fate  of  a  poor  betrayed  girl,  and  I  should  have 
laughed  at  her  sorrows  if  some  jocose  friend  had 
described  them  to  me  in  merry  company;  in  France, 
the  feeling  of  horror  for  a  crime  always  disappears 
in  the  glamour  of  a  witty  remark;  but  in  presence 
of  that  divine  creature  against  whom  I  could  bring  no 
reproach,  all  subtleties  of  reasoning  held  their  peace: 
the  coffin  was  there,  and  my  child  smiled  at  me,  not 
knowing  that  I  had  murdered  his  mother. 

"  That  woman  died,  she  died  happy  in  the  assur- 
ance that  I  loved  her,  and  that  that  new  love  was 
due  neither  to  pity  nor  even  to  the  bond  that  united 
us  by  force.  Never  shall  I  forget  those  last  hours 
when  love  regained  and  satisfied  motherhood  im- 
posed silence  on  pain.  The  abundance,  the  luxury 
with  which  she  was  surrounded,  the  delight  of  her 
child,  who  seemed  lovelier  in  the  pretty  garb  of 
childhood,  were  pledges  of  a  happy  future  for  the 
little  creature  in  whom  she  seemed  to  see  herself 
living  anew.  The  vicar  of  Saint-Sulpice,  observing 
my  despair,  made  it  even  more  profound  by  offer- 
ing me  no  trite  consolation,  but  enforcing  upon  me 
the  serious  nature  of  my  obligations;  but  I  needed 
no  spur,  my  conscience  talked  loudly  enough.     A 


276  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

woman  had  entrusted  herself  to  me  with  noble 
confidence,  and  I  had  lied  to  her,  telling  her  that 
I  loved  her  when  I  was  deceiving  her;  I  had  caused 
all  the  misery  and  suffering  of  a  poor  girl  who, 
after  she  had  accepted  the  humiliations  of  the 
world,  should  have  been  sacred  to  me;  she  died 
forgiving  me,  forgetting  all  her  wrongs,  because 
she  placed  her  trust  in  the  word  of  a  man  who  had 
already  broken  his  word  to  her.  After  giving  me 
her  faith  as  a  girl,  Agathe  had  found  in  her  heart 
a  mother's  faith  to  give  me.  O  monsieur,  that 
child!  her  child! — God  alone  can  know  what  he  was 
to  me.  The  dear  little  fellow  was,  like  his  mother, 
charming  in  his  movements,  in  his  words,  in  his 
ideas;  but,  in  my  eyes,  he  was  something  more  than 
a  mere  child!  Was  he  not  my  pardon,  my  honor? 
I  loved  him  as  a  father,  I  determined  also  to  love 
him  as  his  mother  would  have  loved  him,  and  to 
transform  my  remorse  into  happiness,  if  I  could  suc- 
ceed in  making  him  believe  that  he  had  not  ceased 
to  lie  upon  his  mother's  breast;  thus  I  was  bound  to 
him  by  all  human  ties  and  by  all  pious  hopes.  I  had 
in  my  heart  all  the  doting  fondness  that  God  has 
implanted  in  mothers.  That  child's  voice  sent  a 
thrill  through  me,  I  would  stand  a  long  while  and 
watch  him  as  he  lay  asleep,  with  a  delight  that  was 
constantly  renewed,  and  a  tear  often  fell  on  his  fore- 
head; I  had  accustomed  him  to  come  and  say  his 
prayers  in  my  bed  as  soon  as  he  waked.  What 
sweet  emotion  did  the  simple  words  of  '  Our  Father* 
cause  me  from  the  child's  pure,  rosy  lips!  but  what 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  277 

painful  emotion  as  well!  One  morning,  after  'Our 
Father  who  art  in  Heaven — '  he  stopped. 

"  '  Why  not  ''Our  Mother?  "  '  he  asked  me. 

"  That  question  floored  me.  I  adored  my  son  and 
I  had  already  sown  in  his  life  many  seeds  of  unhap- 
piness.  Although  the  laws  have  recognized  the  sins 
of  youth,  and  have  almost  protected  them  by  hesi- 
tatingly bestowing  a  legal  existence  on  natural  chil- 
dren, society  has  fortified  the  repugnance  of  the  law 
by  insurmountable  prejudices.  From  that  period, 
monsieur,  date  my  serious  reflections  on  the  founda- 
tion of  societies,  their  machinery,  the  duties  of  man, 
and  the  moral  principles  which  should  animate  the 
citizen.  Genius  embraces,  first  of  all,  the  bonds 
between  the  sentiment  of  man  and  the  destinies 
of  society;  religion  inspires  in  virtuous  minds  the 
principles  essential  to  happiness;  but  repentance 
alone  dictates  them  to  impetuous  imaginations:  re- 
pentance enlightened  me.  I  lived  only  for  a  child, 
and  through  that  child,  I  was  led  to  reflect  upon  the 
great  social  questions.  I  resolved  to  arm  him  be- 
forehand with  all  the  elements  of  success,  in  order 
to  assure  his  elevation.  For  instance,  to  teach  him 
English,  German,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  I  provided 
him  in  succession  with  a  tutor  in  each  of  those  lan- 
guages, in  each  case  a  native  of  the  country  in  ques- 
tion, who  was  instructed  to  teach  him,  while  he  was 
still  a  mere  child,  the  pronunciation  of  the  language. 
1  was  overjoyed  to  discover  in  him  a  most  promising 
disposition  to  learn,  of  which  I  took  advantage  to 
instruct  him  while  amusing  him.     I  was  determined 


278  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

that  not  a  single  false  idea  should  find  its  way 
into  his  mind;  I  sought,  above  all,  to  accustom  him 
betimes  to  exercise  his  intelligence,  to  give  him  that 
swift  and  sure  perception  which  enables  one  to  gener- 
alize, and  that  patience  which  enables  one  to  delve 
among  the  most  trivial  details  of  a  specialty;  lastly, 
I  taught  him  to  suffer  and  to  hold  his  peace.  I  would 
not  allow  an  impure  or  even  an  unseemly  word  to 
be  pronounced  before  him.  Through  my  efforts,  the 
men  and  the  objects  by  which  he  was  surrounded 
contributed  to  ennoble  him,  to  elevate  his  mind, 
to  instill  in  him  the  love  of  the  true,  a  horror  of 
falsehood,  to  make  him  simple  and  natural  in  word 
and  act  and  manner.  The  vivacity  of  his  imagina- 
tion enabled  him  to  grasp  object-lessons  quickly, 
while  the  aptitude  of  his  intelligence  made  his  other 
studies  easy  for  him.  What  a  charming  plant  to 
cultivate!  What  joy  mothers  have!  I  understood 
then  how  his  mother  had  been  able  to  live  and 
endure  her  unhappiness. 

"  That,  monsieur,  was  the  most  momentous  event 
in  my  life,  and  I  come  now  to  the  catastrophe  that 
drove  me  headlong  to  this  canton.  I  am  about  to 
tell  you  now  the  most  commonplace,  the  simplest 
story  imaginable,  but  to  me  the  most  terrible. 

"  After  devoting  all  my  energies  for  several  years 
to  the  child  of  whom  I  wished  to  make  a  man,  my 
solitary  life  began  to  alarm  me;  my  son  was  grow- 
ing fast,  he  would  soon  turn  his  back  upon  me.  In 
my  mind  love  was  a  fundamental  principle  of  exist- 
ence.    I  felt  a  craving  for  affection  which,  being 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  279 

always  ungratified,  sprang  up  again  stronger  than 
before,  and  increased  with  age.  At  that  time  all  the 
elements  of  a  genuine  affection  were  united  in  my 
person.  I  had  been  put  to  the  proof,  I  appreciated 
the  joys  of  constancy,  and  the  happiness  of  trans- 
forming a  sacrifice  into  a  pleasure;  and  the  woman 
whom  I  loved  was  certain  to  be  always  first  in  my 
thoughts  and  my  acts.  I  took  pleasure  in  imagining 
a  love  that  had  attained  that  degree  of  certainty  in 
which  the  emotions  it  arouses  have  penetrated  both 
so  thoroughly  that  happiness  has  become  a  part 
of  their  lives,  their  glances,  their  words,  and  no 
longer  causes  any  shock.  Love  is  then  a  part  of 
life  as  religious  feeling  is  a  part  of  the  soul,  it 
animates  it,  supports  it,  enlightens  it.  I  understood 
conjugal  love  otherwise  than  most  men  understand 
it,  and  I  considered  that  its  beauty,  its  magnificence, 
are  found  in  those  very  things  that  cause  its  death  in 
innumerable  families.  I  felt  keenly  the  moral  gran- 
deur of  a  dual  life  so  intimately  shared  that  the  most 
commonplace  actions  should  no  longer  be  an  obstacle 
to  the  perpetuity  of  sentiments.  But  where  could 
one  find  two  hearts  whose  pulsations  were  so  per- 
fectly synchronous — pardon  me  that  scientific  ex- 
pression— as  to  make  that  celestial  union  possible? 
If  such  exist,  nature  or  chance  places  them  so  far 
apart  that  they  cannot  meet,  they  know  each  other 
too  late,  or  are  parted  too  soon  by  death.  That 
fatality  must  have  some  significance,  but  I  have 
never  tried  to  fathom  it.  I  suffer  too  much  from 
my  wound  to  study  it.     Perhaps  perfect  happiness 


28o  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

is  a  monstrosity  that  would  not  perpetuate  our  spe- 
cies. 

"  My  eagerness  for  a  marriage  of  that  kind  was 
heightened  by  other  causes.  I  had  no  friends.  To 
me  the  world  was  a  desert.  There  is  something  in 
me  that  is  opposed  to  the  alluring  phenomenon  of 
the  union  of  souls.  Some  persons  have  sought  me, 
but  nothing  would  make  them  seem  near  to  me, 
strive  as  I  might  to  become  attached  to  them.  With 
many  men  I  imposed  silence  on  what  the  world  calls 
my  superiority;  1  kept  step  with  them,  I  espoused 
their  ideas,  I  laughed  when  they  laughed,  I  made 
excuses  for  the  defects  in  their  character;  if  I  had 
won  renown,  I  would  have  sold  it  to  them  for  a  little 
affection.  Those  men  left  me  without  regret.  In 
Paris  everything  is  a  snare  and  an  affliction  to  hearts 
that  try  to  find  genuine  sentiments  there.  Wherever 
I  placed  my  feet  in  society,  the  ground  seemed  to 
burn  all  around  me.  To  some  my  passivity  seemed 
weakness;  if  I  showed  them  the  claws  of  a  man  who 
felt  that  he  possessed  the  strength  to  handle  the  reins 
of  power  some  day,  I  was  wicked.  To  others  the 
delightful  laugh  which  ceases  at  twenty  years  and  in 
which  we  are  almost  ashamed  to  indulge  later  was 
a  subject  of  raillery — I  amused  them.  In  our  day, 
society  is  bored  and  yet  insists  upon  solemnity  in 
the  most  trivial  conversation.  A  horrible  period, 
when  people  bow  down  before  a  cold,  polished  man 
of  mediocre  talent,  whom  everyone  hates,  but  whom 
everyone  obeys!  I  discovered  later  the  explanation 
of  this  apparent  inconsistency. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  28 1 

*(^ediocrity,  monsieur,  is  a  sufficient  equipment 
PveryTiouT  of  one's  life;  it  is  the  e very-day  garb  of 
[society;  whoever  emerges  from  the  pleasant  shadow 
cast  by  mediocre  people  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  too 
brilliant;  genius,  originality,  are  jewels  which  one 
stores  awj^  and  keeps  for  adornment  on  certain 
great  days.^^ln  short,  monsieur,  being  alone  in  the 
midst  of  Paris,  unable  to  find  anything  in  society, 
which  gave  nothing  back  to  me  when  I  gave  it  all  I 
had;  having  in  my  child  not  enough  to  satisfy  my 
heart,  because  I  was  a  man:  one  day,  when  I  felt 
that  my  life  was  growing  cold,  that  I  was  bending 
beneath  the  burden  of  my  secret  miseries,  I  met  the 
woman  through  whom  I  was  to  become  acquainted 
witii  love  in  its  most  violent  form,  and  to  respect 
acknowledged  love,  love  with  its  fruitful  hopes  of 
happiness, — in  a  word,  love! 

"  I  had  renewed  my  acquaintance  with  my  father's 
old  friend,  who  formerly  had  charge  of  my  interests: 
it  was  at  his  house  that  I  met  the  young  woman  for 
whom  I  conceived  a  passion  which  was  to  endure  as 
long  as  my  life.  The  older  a  man  grows,  monsieur, 
the  more  fully  he  recognizes  the  influences  of  ideas 
"upon  events.  Eminently  respectable  prejudices, 
engendered  by  noble  religious  ideas,  were  the  cause 
of  my  misfortunes.  This  young  woman  belonged  to 
an  extremely  devout  family,  whose  Catholic  opinions 
were  attributable  to  the  influence  of  a  sect  improperly 
called  Jansenists,  which  formerly  caused  much  dis- 
turbance in  France;  do  you  know  why.?" 

**  No,"  said  Genestas. 


282  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  Jansenius,  Bishop  of  Ypres,  wrote  a  book  which 
was  alleged  to  contain  propositions  not  in  accord  with 
the  doctrines  of  the  Holy  See.  Later,  those  propo- 
sitions as  they  were  actually  written  did  not  seem 
heretical,  and  some  authors  went  so  far  as  to  deny 
the  material  existence  of  the  maxims.  These  mean- 
ingless discussions  caused  two  factions  to  appear  in 
the  Galilean  church,  the  Jansenists  and  the  Jesuits. 
There  were  great  men  ranged  on  both  sides.  It 
was  a  struggle  between  two  powerful  bodies.  The 
Jansenists  accused  the  Jesuits  of  inculcating  a  too 
loose  system  of  morals,  and  affected  excessive  purity 
both  of  morals  and  principles;  thus  the  Jansenists 
were  a  sort  of  Catholic  Puritans,  if  the  two  words 
can  properly  be  placed  side  by  side. 

"  During  the  French  Revolution,  as  a  result  of  the 
unimportant  schism  produced  by  the  Concordat,  a 
congregation  of  pure  Catholics  was  formed,  who  did 
not  recognize  the  bishops  appointed  by  the  revolu- 
tionary authorities  and  by  the  Pope's  compromises. 
That  flock  of  the  faithful  constituted  what  was  called 
the  Little  Church,  whose  members  professed,  like 
the  Jansenists,  that  exemplary  regularity  of  life 
which  seems  to  be  a  rule  necessary  to  the  existence 
of  proscribed  and  persecuted  sects.  Several  Jansenist 
families  belonged  to  the  Little  Church.  The  parents 
of  the  girl  in  question  had  embraced  those  two  puri- 
tanisms,  equally  strict,  which  impart  an  imposing 
aspect  to  the  character  and  the  features;  for  it  is  the 
peculiar  property  of  uncompromising  doctrines  to 
magnify  the  simplest  actions  by  dwelling  upon  their 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  283 

relation  to  the  future  life:  hence  that  superb  and 
pleasing  purity  of  heart,  that  respect  for  others  and 
themselves;  hence  an  indefinably  delicate  sense  of  the 
just  and  the  unjust;  an  abounding  charity,  too,  but 
also  a  strict  and,  if  I  may  say  so,  implacable  equity; 
and,  lastly,  a  deep-rooted  horror  of  vice,  especially 
of  falsehood,  which  includes  all  vices.  I  cannot  re- 
member that  I  ever  knew  more  delightful  moments 
than  those  at  my  old  friend's  house  when  I  saw  for 
the  first  time  a  genuine,  bashful  maiden,  accustomed 
to  implicit  obedience,  in  whom  all  the  virtues  pecul- 
iar to  that  sect  shone  resplendent,  although  she  dis- 
played no  pride  in  their  possession.  Her  slender 
little  figure  gave  to  her  movements  a  charm  which 
her  puritanical  ways  could  not  diminish;  her  face 
had  the  distinguished  contour,  and  her  features  the 
refinement,  of  a  young  woman  of  noble  birth;  her 
glance  was  at  once  sweet  and  reserved;  her  brow 
was  unruffled;  and  her  abundant  hair,  dressed  with 
great  simplicity,  answered  all  the  purposes,  unknown 
to  her,  of  a  tiara. 

"  In  short,  captain,  she  was  in  my  eyes  the  type 
of  the  perfection  we  always  find  in  the  woman  with 
whom  we  are  in  love;  in  order  to  love  her  we  must 
find  in  her  the  elements  of  the  beauty  of  which 
we  have  dreamed  and  which  accords  with  our 
special  ideas.  When  I  spoke  to  her,  she  answered 
simply,  without  forwardness  or  false  modesty,  know- 
ing nothing  of  the  pleasure  caused  by  the  harmony 
between  her  voice  and  her  external  gifts.  All  those 
angels  have  the  same  marks  by  which  the  heart 


284  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

recognizes  them:  the  same  sweet  voice,  the  same 
tender  expression,  the  same  fair  complexion,  some- 
thing attractive  in  the  gesture.  Those  qualities 
harmonize  with  one  another,  blend  and  unite  to 
charm  us,  although  we  cannot  say  in  what  the 
charm  consists.  A  divine  soul  makes  itself  manifest 
in  every  movement.  I  loved  her  passionately. 
That  love  awoke  and  satisfied  the  sentiments  by 
which  I  was  agitated:  ambition,  wealth,  in  a  word, 
all  my  dreams!  Lovely,  of  noble  birth,  rich  and 
well-bred,  that  girl  possessed  all  the  advantages 
which  society  arbitrarily  demands  of  a  woman  in  the 
lofty  position  I  was  determined  to  attain;  her  educa- 
tion enabled  her  to  express  herself  with  the  witty 
eloquence  that  is  so  rare  and  yet  so  common  in 
France,  where,  in  the  mouths  of  many  women,  the 
highest  remarks  seem  meaningless,  whereas  in  her 
case,  wit  was  full  of  good  sense.  Lastly,  she  had  a 
profound  consciousness  of  her  own  dignity,  which 
compelled  respect;  I  know  of  no  more  estimable 
quality  in  a  wife. 

"  I  desist,  captain!  one  must  always  describe 
most  inadequately  a  woman  one  loves;  between  her 
and  ourselves  there  are  pre-existent  mysteries  which 
defy  analysis.  I  soon  confided  in  my  old  friend, 
who  introduced  me  to  her  family,  and  gave  me  the 
support  of  his  respectable  authority.  Although  re- 
ceived at  first  with  the  cold  courtesy  peculiar  to 
exclusive  people,  who  never  abandon  a  friend  when 
they  have  once  adopted  him,  I  succeeded  eventually 
in  being  received  on  a  familiar  footing.     I  owed  that 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  285 

evidence  of  regard  doubtless  to  my  conduct  at  that 
crisis.  Despite  my  passion,  I  did  nothing  that  could 
disgrace  me  in  my  own  eyes,  I  was  guilty  of  no 
servile  obsequiousness,  1  did  not  fawn  on  those  upon 
whom  my  destiny  depended,  I  showed  myself  as  I 
was,  a  man  before  everything.  When  my  charac- 
ter was  well  understood,  my  old  friend,  who  was  as 
desirous  as  myself  to  see  the  end  of  my  unhappy 
bachelorhood,  spoke  of  my  hopes,  which  were  lis- 
tened to  favorably,  but  with  the  shrewd  reserve 
which  people  in  society  seldom  lay  aside;  and  in  his 
eagerness  to  procure  for  me  a  good  match,  an  ex- 
pression which  places  an  act  of  such  solemnity  on 
a  level  with  a  species  of  commercial  transaction  in 
which  the  prospective  husband  or  wife  seeks  to 
deceive  the  other,  the  old  man  said  nothing  about 
what  he  called  an  error  of  my  youth.  In  his  view, 
a  knowledge  of  my  child's  existence  would  excite  a 
moral  repulsion  in  comparison  with  which  the  ques- 
tion of  fortune  would  be  of  no  consequence,  and 
which  would  inevitably  lead  to  a  rupture.  He  was 
right. 

"  '  It  will  be  an  easy  matter  to  arrange  between 
yourself  and  your  wife,'  he  said  to  me,  *  and  you 
will  readily  obtain  full  and  free  absolution  from  her.' 

"  In  fact,  in  his  zeal  to  quiet  my  scruples,  he 
neglected  none  of  the  specious  arguments  which 
ordinary  worldly  wisdom  suggests.  I  will  confess, 
monsieur,  that,  in  spite  of  my  promise,  my  first 
impulse  led  me  to  disclose  everything  frankly  to 
the  head  of  the  family;   but  his  stern   puritanism 


286  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

made  me  reflect,  and  the  probable  consequences 
of  the  disclosure  terrified  me;  I  made  a  cowardly 
compromise  with  my  conscience,  I  determined  to 
wait,  and  to  obtain  from  my  intended  bride  such 
pledges  of  attachment  that  my  happiness  would 
not  be  endangered  by  that  appalling  revelation.  My 
determination  to  confess  everything  at  an  opportune 
moment  justified  the  worldly  old  man's  sophistries 
and  those  of  society  at  large.  I  was,  therefore, 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  friends  of  the  family, 
received  by  the  young  woman's  parents  as  her 
future  husband.  The  most  marked  characteristic 
of  such  devout  families  is  unlimited  reserve,  and  they 
maintain  silence  on  all  subjects,  even  those  of  little 
consequence.  You  cannot  imagine,  monsieur,  what 
depth  of  feeling  results  from  that  charming  gravity, 
displayed  even  in  the  most  trivial  acts.  In  that 
house  everybody  was  engaged  in  some  useful  occu- 
pation; the  women  employed  their  leisure  making 
clothes  for  the  poor;  the  conversation  was  not  friv- 
olous, but  laughter  was  not  tabooed,  although  the 
jesting  was  simple  and  not  sarcastic.  The  talk  of 
those  rigidly  orthodox  people  seemed  strange  at  first, 
being  devoid  of  the  piquancy  that  slander  and 
scandalous  anecdotes  impart  to  the  conversation  of 
society;  for  only  the  father  and  uncle  read  the  news- 
papers, and  my  betrothed  had  never  cast  an  eye  on 
one  of  those  sheets,  the  most  harmless  of  which  deal 
with  crimes  and  public  vices;  but  later  the  mind  felt, 
in  that  pure  atmosphere,  the  impression  that  our  eyes 
receive  from  grayish  tints,  a  pleasant  sense  of  repose, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  287 

a  soothing  calm.  In  appearance  theirs  was  a  horribly 
monotonous  life.  There  was  something  glacial  in 
the  aspect  of  the  inside  of  that  house:  day  after  day  I 
saw  all  the  furniture,  even  that  which  was  most  used, 
placed  in  exactly  the  same  position,  and  the  smallest 
objects  always  equally  spotless.  Nevertheless,  that 
mode  of  life  exercised  a  powerful  attraction.  After 
I  had  overcome  the  first  repugnance  of  a  man  accus- 
tomed to  the  pleasures  of  variety,  of  Parisian  luxury 
and  activity,  I  recognized  the  advantages  of  that 
kind  of  life;  it  develops  one's  ideas  to  their  fullest 
extent  and  provokes  involuntary  contemplation;  the 
heart  reigns  supreme,  nothing  distracts  its  attention, 
it  ends  by  discovering  there  something  as  vast  as 
the  ocean.  There,  as  in  a  cloister,  the  thought,  as  it 
constantly  comes  in  contact  with  the  same  things, 
necessarily  turns  aside  from  things  toward  the  infi- 
nite regions  of  sentiments. 

"To  a  man  as  sincerely  in  love  as  I  was,  the 
silence  and  simplicity  of  the  life,  the  almost  monastic 
repetition  of  the  same  acts  at  the  same  hours,  im- 
parted greater  force  to  love.  In  that  profound  tran- 
quillity, the  slightest  movements,  a  word,  a  gesture, 
assumed  extraordinary  interest.  Without  forcing  in 
any  way  the  expression  of  the  feelings,  a  smile,  a 
glance,  offer  to  hearts  that  understand  each  other, 
inexhaustible  images  to  depict  their  joys  and  their 
miseries.  So  it  was  that  I  learned  at  that  time  that 
language,  with  all  its  magnificent  phrases,  has  noth- 
ing so  varied,  so  eloquent,  as  the  correspondence  of 
glances  and  the  harmony  of  smiles.     How  many 


288  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

times  I  have  tried  to  put  my  whole  heart  into  my 
eyes  or  on  my  lips,  when  I  found  myself  obliged  to 
hold  my  peace  and  at  the  same  time  to  paint  the 
violence  of  my  passion  to  a  girl  who  always  sat  un- 
moved in  my  presence,  and  to  whom  the  secret  cause 
of  my  frequent  visits  to  the  house  had  not  been  re- 
vealed; for  her  parents  proposed  to  leave  her  perfectly 
free  in  the  most  important  act  of  her  life.  But,  when 
one  is  under  the  spell  of  a  genuine  passion,  does  not 
the  presence  of  the  loved  one  allay  our  most  impetu- 
ous desires?  when  we  are  admitted  to  her  presence, 
is  not  our  happiness  like  that  of  the  Christian  before 
God?  Does  not  seeing  mean  adoring?  If  it  was  a 
keener  torture  to  me  than  to  any  other  man  to  be 
unable  to  express  the  impulses  of  my  heart;  if  I  was 
forced  to  bury  therein  the  burning  words  that  betray 
more  burning  emotions  by  giving  expression  to  them, 
nevertheless,  that  restraint,  by  imprisoning  my  pas- 
sion, made  it  burst  forth  more  ardently  in  little  things, 
and  the  most  trivial  incidents  acquired  an  excessive 
value.  To  admire  for  long  hours,  to  await  a  reply 
and  linger  long  over  the  modulations  of  her  voice, 
seeking  to  decipher  her  most  secret  thoughts  therein; 
to  watch  the  trembling  of  her  fingers  when  I  handed 
her  something  she  had  been  looking  for,  to  invent 
pretexts  for  brushing  against  her  dress  or  her  hair, 
to  take  her  hand,  to  make  her  talk  more  than  she 
wanted  to, — all  such  trifles  were  momentous  events. 
During  those  trances,  so  to  speak,  the  eyes,  the 
gesture,  the  voice,  carried  to  the  mind  unfamiliar 
evidences  of  love. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  289 

"  Such  was  my  language,  the  only  language  that 
the  girl's  cold  maidenly  reserve  permitted  me  to 
adopt;  for  her  manner  did  not  change,  with  me  she 
was  always  as  a  sister  is  with  a  brother;  but,  as  my 
passion  increased,  the  contrast  between  my  words 
and  hers,  between  my  glances  and  hers,  became 
more  striking,  and  I  realized  at  last  that  that  bashful 
silence  was  the  only  means  at  her  disposal  of  express- 
ing her  feelings.  Was  she  not  always  in  the  salon 
when  I  arrived?  did  she  not  always  remain  during 
my  anticipated  call,  of  which  she  had  a  presenti- 
ment perhaps?  Did  not  that  silent  devotion  betray 
the  secret  of  her  innocent  heart?  Furthermore, 
did  she  not  listen  to  what  I  said  with  a  delight 
which  she  could  not  conceal  ?  The  ingenuousness  of 
our  conduct  and  the  melancholy  of  our  love  event- 
ually, I  doubt  not,  troubled  her  parents'  patience, 
and,  seeing  that  1  was  almost  as  shy  as  their 
daughter,  they  formed  a  favorable  opinion  of  me  and 
looked  upon  me  as  a  man  worthy  of  their  esteem. 
The  father  and  mother  confided  in  my  old  friend, 
said  the  most  flattering  things  to  him  about  me:  I  had 
become  their  son  by  adoption;  they  admired,  espe- 
cially, the  morality  of  my  sentiments.  To  be  sure, 
at  that  time  I  had  grown  young  again.  In  that  pure, 
devout  atmosphere,  the  man  of  thirty-two  became 
once  more  the  youth  overflowing  with  faith. 

"  The  summer  was  drawing  to  an  end;  the  family 

had  been  detained  in  Paris  contrary  to  their  custom; 

but  in  the  month  of  September  they  were  free  to 

leave  the  capital  for  a  country  estate  in  Auvergne, 

19 


290  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

and  the  father  begged  me  to  come  and  sojourn  for 
two  months  in  an  old  chateau  in  the  heart  of  the 
mountains  of  Cantal.  When  that  friendly  invita- 
tion was  extended  to  me,  at  first  I  made  no  reply. 
My  hesitation  was  worth  to  me  the  sweetest,  the 
most  delightful  of  all  the  involuntary  ejaculations  by 
which  a  modest  maiden  can  betray  the  mysteries  of 
her  heart.  Evelina —  My  God!"  cried  Benassis, 
and  he  became  pensive  and  silent. 

"  Forgive  me.  Captain  Bluteau,"  he  resumed  after 
a  long  pause.  "  This  is  the  first  time  in  twelve 
years  that  I  have  uttered  a  name  which  is  always 
fluttering  about  in  my  thoughts,  and  which  a  voice 
often  calls  out  to  me  during  my  sleep.  Evelina, 
then,  since  I  have  called  her  by  name,  raised  her  head 
with  a  movement  whose  abrupt  suddenness  was  in 
striking  contrast  to  the  innate  gentleness  of  her  ges- 
tures under  ordinary  circumstances;  she  glanced  at 
me,  not  proudly,  but  with  sorrowful  anxiety;  she 
blushed  and  cast  down  her  eyes.  The  moderation 
with  which  she  lowered  her  eyelids  caused  me  an 
indescribable  pleasure  I  had  never  before  known.  I 
was  unable  to  reply  except  in  a  faltering,  broken 
voice.  The  emotion  of  my  heart  appealed  eagerly 
to  hers,  and  she  thanked  me  with  a  sweet,  almost 
tearful  glance.  We  had  said  all  that  there  was  to  be 
said. 

"  I  went  with  the  family  to  their  country  estate. 
From  the  day  that  we  understood  each  other,  our 
surroundings  assumed  a  novel  aspect;  nothing  was 
indifferent  to  us  any  longer.     Although  true  love  is 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  291 

always  the  same,  it  must  borrow  its  shape  from  our 
ideas,  and  thus  find  itself  constantly  like  and  unlike 
itself  in  each  being  whose  passion  becomes  a  pro- 
duct unique  in  itself,  in  which  his  or  her  sympathies 
are  expressed.  Only  the  philosopher  and  the  poet 
realize  the  profundity  of  this  definition  of  love, 
which  has  become  trite:  selfishness  a  deux.  We 
love  ourselves  in  the  other.  But  if  the  method  of 
expressing  love  varies  so  widely  that  no  two  pairs  of 
lovers  in  all  history  have  been  precisely  alike,  it 
nevertheless  follows  the  same  rule  in  its  periods  of 
expansion.  So  that  all  young  women,  even  the 
most  chaste,  the  most  religiously  inclined,  employ 
the  same  language,  and  differ  only  in  the  charm 
of  their  ideas.  But  where,  in  another  woman,  the 
ingenuous  revelation  of  her  emotions  would  have 
been  natural,  Evelina  saw  a  concession  to  unruly 
sentiments  which  carried  the  day  over  the  habitual 
placidity  of  her  religious  youth,  and  even  the  most 
stealthy  glance  seemed  to  be  violently  torn  from  her 
by  love.  That  constant  conflict  between  her  heart 
and  her  principles  gave  to  the  least  momentous  inci- 
dents of  her  life,  which  was  so  tranquil  on  the 
surface  and  in  reality  so  profoundly  agitated,  a  force- 
ful character  far  superior  to  the  exaggerations  of 
many  girls  whose  manners  are  early  f)erverted  by 
worldly  morals.  During  the  journey,  Evelina  dis- 
covered beauties  in  nature  of  which  she  spoke  with 
admiration.  When  we  think  that  we  are  not  en- 
titled to  express  the  joy  caused  by  the  loved  one's 
presence,  we  turn  the  overflow  of  the  sensations 


292  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

with  which  our  hearts  are  inundated  upon  the 
exterior  objects  which  our  hidden  feelings  em- 
bellish. The  poetic  beauty  of  the  landscapes 
that  passed  before  our  eyes  was  to  us  two  an 
interpreter  whom  we  thoroughly  understood,  and 
the  admiring  words  we  bestowed  on  them  ex- 
pressed to  our  hearts  the  secret  of  our  love.  On 
several  occasions  Evelina's  mother  amused  herself 
by  embarrassing  her  daughter  with  mischievous 
suggestions  characteristic  of  womankind. 

"'You  have  passed  through  this  valley  twenty 
times  without  seeming  to  admire  it  particularly,  my 
dear  child!'  she  said,  after  a  somewhat  too  enthusi- 
astic remark  from  Evelina. 

"'1  suppose  I  was  not  old  enough  to  appreciate 
natural  beauties  of  this  sort,  mother.' 

"  Pardon  this  detail,  which  will  hardly  interest 
you,  captain;  but  that  reply,  simple  as  it  was, 
caused  me  indescribable  joy,  all  due  to  the  glance  in 
my  direction  which  accompanied  it.  So  it  was  that 
a  village  illuminated  by  the  setting  sun,  an  ivy- 
covered  ruin,  at  which  we  had  gazed  together,  served 
to  imprint  more  deeply  in  our  hearts,  by  the  memory 
of  a  material  object,  blissful  emotions  in  which  our 
whole  future  was  involved. 

"  We  arrived  safely  at  the  ancestral  chateau, 
where  I  remained  about  forty  days.  That  time, 
monsieur,  is  the  only  portion  of  perfect  happiness 
that  Heaven  has  ever  vouchsafed  to  me.  I  ex- 
perienced delights  unknown  to  the  denizens  of 
cities.    They  comprised  all  the  happiness  that  two 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  293 

lovers  have  in  living  under  the  same  roof,  in  marry- 
ing in  anticipation,  in  walking  together  across  the 
fields,  in  being  able  to  be  alone  sometimes,  in  sitting 
under  a  tree  in  the  heart  of  a  charming  little  valley 
and  gazing  at  some  old  mill,  in  snatching  confi- 
dences, you  know,  from  the  delicious  little  chats  by 
which  you  move  forward  a  little  every  day  in  each 
other's  heart.  Ah!  monsieur,  the  life  in  the  open 
air,  the  beauties  of  earth  and  sky  harmonize  so  per- 
fectly with  the  joys  and  the  perfection  of  the  heart! 
To  smile  as  you  look  up  at  the  sky,  to  mingle  simple 
words  with  the  songs  of  the  birds  under  the  moist 
foliage,  to  walk  slowly  homeward  listening  to  the 
clang  of  the  bell  that  summons  you  too  soon,  to  ad- 
mire together  some  little  detail  of  the  landscape,  to 
follow  the  capricious  flight  of  an  insect,  to  examine 
a  golden-winged  fly,  a  fragile  creature,  in  the  hand 
of  a  pure  and  loving  maiden,  is  to  be  drawn  every 
day  a  little  nearer  Heaven. 

"  In  those  forty  days  of  bliss  there  was  the  mate- 
rial of  memories  to  color  my  whole  life,  memories 
the  sweeter  and  more  far-reaching  because  it  was 
my  destiny  never  to  be  understood  afterward.  To- 
day images  apparently  unmeaning,  but  full  of  bitter 
significance  for  a  broken  heart,  have  reminded  me 
of  a  vanished  but  not  forgotten  love.  I  do  not  know 
whether  you  noticed  the  effect  of  the  sunset  on  little 
Jacques's  cottage.?  In  an  instant  the  fiery  rays  of 
the  sun  made  all  nature  resplendent,  then  the  land- 
scape suddenly  became  dismal  and  dark.  Those  two 
widely  contrasted  aspects  presented  to  my  mind  a 


294  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

faithful  picture  of  that  period  of  my  history.  Mon- 
sieur, I  received  from  her  the  first,  the  sublime  and 
only  testimony  of  her  love  which  an  innocent  girl 
can  give,  and  which  binds  the  faster  the  more  fur- 
tively it  is  given:  love's  sweet  promise,  a  souvenir 
of  the  language  spoken  in  a  better  world!  There- 
upon, sure  that  I  was  loved,  1  made  a  vow  to  tell 
everything,  to  have  no  secret  from  her;  I  was 
ashamed  that  I  had  delayed  so  long  to  tell  her  of 
the  wretchedness  I  had  created  for  myself.  Un- 
fortunately, on  the  day  following  that  day  of 
bliss,  a  letter  from  my  son's  tutor  made  me  trem- 
ble for  a  life  that  was  very  dear  to  me.  I  went 
away  without  telling  Evelina  my  secret,  giving 
the  family  no  other  excuse  than  that  of  important 
business. 

"In  my  absence  her  parents  became  alarmed. 
Fearing  that  my  heart  might  be  subject  to  some 
prior  claim,  they  wrote  to  Paris  to  make  inquiries 
about  me.  Although  such  conduct  was  inconsistent 
with  their  religious  principles,  they  distrusted  me, 
without  giving  me  an  opportunity  to  dissipate  their 
suspicions;  one  of  their  friends  enlightened  them, 
without  my  knowledge,  as  to  the  events  of  my 
youth,  put  my  errors  in  the  worst  possible  light, 
dwelling  upon  the  existence  of  my  child,  which,  he 
said,  1  had  purposely  concealed.  When  I  wrote  to 
my  future  parents,  I  received  no  reply;  they  re- 
turned to  Paris,  I  called  upon  them  and  was  not 
admitted.  Alarmed  beyond  measure,  1  sent  my  old 
friend  to  ascertain  the  cause  of  conduct  which  I  was 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  295 

utterly  unable  to  explain.  When  he  learned  the 
cause,  the  excellent  old  man  sacrificed  himself  nobly; 
he  assumed  the  whole  responsibility  for  my  silence, 
strove  earnestly  to  justify  me,  but  could  effect 
nothing.  Considerations  of  interest  and  morality 
were  too  grave  in  the  sight  of  that  family,  their 
prejudices  were  too  deeply  rooted  to  make  it  pos- 
sible to  change  their  determination.  My  despair 
knew  no  bounds.  At  first  I  tried  to  turn  aside 
the  storm;  but  my  letters  were  returned  to  me 
unopened. 

"  When  all  human  means  were  exhausted;  when 
the  father  and  mother  had  informed  the  old  man  who 
was  responsible  for  my  misfortune  that  they  would 
never  consent  to  give  their  daughter  to  a  man  who 
had  on  his  conscience  the  death  of  a  woman  and  the 
life  of  a  natural  child,  even  although  Evelina  im- 
plored them  on  her  knees  to  relent,  then,  monsieur, 
but  one  last  hope  was  left  to  me,  a  hope  as  fragile  as 
the  willow  branch  to  which  a  poor  devil  clings  when 
he  is  drowning.  I  dared  to  believe  that  Evelina's 
love  would  be  stronger  than  her  parents'  resolution, 
and  that  she  would  be  able  to  overcome  their  inflex- 
ibility; her  father  might  have  concealed  from  her  the 
reasons  for  the  refusal  which  slew  our  love,  and  I 
proposed  that  she  should  decide  my  fate  with  full 
knowledge  of  the  facts;  so  I  wrote  to  her.  Alas! 
monsieur,  in  tears  and  sorrow,  I  wrote,  not  without 
cruel  hesitation,  the  only  love-letter  I  have  ever 
written.  I  have  but  a  vague  remembrance  to-day 
of  the  words  that  despair  dictated;  doubtless  I  told 


296  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

my  Evelina  that,  if  she  were  sincere  and  true,  she 
could  not,  must  not,  ever  love  any  other  man  than  me; 
otherwise,  would  not  her  life  be  a  failure,  must  she 
not  lie  to  her  future  husband  unless  she  had  lied  to 
me?  would  she  not  betray  all  womanly  virtues  by  re- 
fusing to  her  misunderstood  lover  the  same  devotion 
she  would  have  bestowed  upon  him  if  the  marriage 
consummated  in  our  hearts  had  been  actually  cele- 
brated? and  what  woman  would  not  adore  the 
thought  that  she  was  more  firmly  bound  by  the 
promises  of  the  heart  than  by  the  chains  of  the  law? 
I  justified  my  sins  by  appealing  to  all  the  purity  of 
innocence,  neglecting  nothing  that  was  likely  to 
touch  a  noble,  generous  heart.  But,  as  I  am  telling 
you  the  whole  story,  I  will  go  and  get  her  reply  and 
my  last  letter,"  said  Benassis,  leaving  the  room  to 
go  up  to  his  own  bedroom. 

He  soon  returned,  holding  in  his  hand  a  worn  port- 
folio, from  which,  not  without  deep  emotion,  he  took 
several  papers,  arranged  in  no  order,  which  trembled 
in  his  hands. 

"Here  is  the  fatal  letter,"  he  said.  "The  child 
who  formed  these  characters  had  no  idea  of  the 
importance  to  me  of  the  paper  that  contains  her 
thoughts.  This,"  he  continued,  indicating  another 
letter,  "is  the  last  cry  that  was  torn  from  me  by 
my  suffering,  and  you  shall  pass  judgment  on  it  in 
a  moment.  My  old  friend  took  charge  of  my  petition, 
delivered  it  secretly,  humiliated  his  white  locks  by 
begging  Evelina  to  read  it,  to  reply  to  it;  and  this  is 
what  she  wrote  me: 


EVELINA    TO  M.  BENASSIS 


"My  old  friend  took  charge  of  my  petition^  de- 
livered it  secretly,  humiliated  his  white  locks  by 
begging  Evelina  to  read  it,  to  reply  to  it ;  and  this 
is  what  she  turote  me : 

" '  Monsieur.'    *     *     * 


■  i-^fyt-'-^  "■'?  V   ''  "  '  '■ 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  297 

"  *  MONSIEUR,' 

"She  called  me,  who  so  short  a  time  before  had 
been  her  beloved,  a  chaste  name  employed  by  her  to 
express  a  chaste  love — she  called  me  monsieur!  That 
one  word  told  the  whole  story.  But  listen  to  the 
letter: 

"  *  It  is  very  hard  for  a  young  girl  to  find  that  the  man  to 
whom  her  life  was  to  be  entrusted  has  been  false  to  her ;  still, 
I  surely  ought  to  forgive  you,  we  are  so  weak  !  Your  letter 
has  touched  me,  but  do  not  write  to  me  any  more,  your  writ- 
ing causes  me  distress  that  I  cannot  endure.  We  are  sep- 
arated forever.  The  reasons  you  gave  me  convinced  me  and 
stifled  the  feeling  that  had  risen  in  my  heart  against  you,  it 
gave  me  such  joy  to  believe  that  you  were  pure  !  But  you 
and  I  are  too  weak  in  opposition  to  my  father !  Yes,  mon- 
sieur, I  dared  to  speak  in  your  favor.  Before  appealing  to  my 
parents  I  had  to  overcome  the  greatest  terror  that  I  ever  knew, 
and  almost  to  give  the  lie  to  all  the  habits  of  my  life.  Now  I 
yield  once  more  to  your  entreaties,  and  do  what  I  know  to  be 
wrong  in  writing  to  you  without  my  father's  knowledge ;  but 
my  mother  knows  it :  her  indulgence  in  leaving  me  alone  for 
a  moment  with  you  proves  to  me  how  dearly  she  loves  me, 
and  confirms  me  in  my  respect  for  the  wishes  of  my  family, 
which  I  was  very  near  failing  to  understand.  And  so,  mon- 
sieur, I  write  to  you  for  the  first  and  last  time.  I  forgive  you 
unreservedly  for  the  unhappiness  you  have  brought  into  my 
life.  Yes,  you  are  right,  a  first  love  never  wholly  disappears. 
I  am  no  longer  a  pure  maiden,  I  could  not  be  a  chaste  wife. 
Therefore  I  do  not  know  what  my  fate  will  be.  You  see,  mon- 
sieur, the  year  of  my  life  that  has  been  filled  by  you  will  echo 
for  a  long  while  in  my  future ;  but  I  do  not  accuse  you. — I  shall 
always  be  loved !  why  tell  me  so  ?  will  those  words  soothe 
the  agitated  heart  of  a  poor  lonely  girl  ?  Have  you  not  already 
destroyed  my  future  life  by  sowing  memories  that  will  con- 
stantly return  ?    If  I  can  give  myself  absolutely  to  Jesus  now, 


298  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

will  He  accept  a  broken  heart?  But  He  has  not  visited  this 
affliction  upon  me  for  no  purpose,  He  has  his  designs,  and 
wished  doubtless  to  call  me  to  Him,  to  Him,  my  only  refuge 
to-day.  Nothing  is  left  me  on  this  earth,  monsieur.  You 
have  all  the  ambitions  natural  to  man  to  dispel  your  dis- 
appointment. 1  do  not  mean  that  as  a  reproach,  but  as  a  sort 
of  religious  consolation.  It  seems  to  me  that  I  have  a  heavier 
portion  of  the  cruel  burden  we  are  bearing  at  this  moment. 
He  in  whom  I  have  placed  all  my  hope,  and  of  whom  you 
cannot  be  jealous,  has  bound  our  lives  together ;  He  will  find 
a  way  to  unbind  them  according  to  His  will.  I  have  noticed 
that  your  religious  beliefs  were  not  grounded  on  the  pure  and 
living  faith  which  helps  us  to  endure  our  trials  here  on  earth. 
Monsieur,  if  God  deigns  to  grant  a  fervent  and  constant 
prayer.  He  will  grant  you  the  blessings  of  His  light.  Adieu, 
you  who  should  have  been  my  guide,  whom  I  have  called  my 
beloved  without  sin,  and  for  whom  I  can  still  pray  without 
shame.  God  disposes  of  our  lives  at  His  pleasure,  He  may 
summon  you  first  of  us  two ;  but  if  I  should  be  left  alone  in 
the  world,  oh !  monsieur,  entrust  that  child  to  me.' 

"  That  letter,  overflowing  with  noble  sentiments, 
dashed  my  hopes  to  the  ground,"  said  Benassis. 
"And  so  at  first  I  listened  only  to  my  grief;  later,  I 
breathed  the  perfume  of  the  balm  that  girl  had  tried 
to  pour  upon  my  wounds,  forgetful  of  herself;  but, 
in  my  despair,  I  wrote  her  a  little  harshly: 

"  *  Mademoiselle, 

"  '  That  one  word  tells  you  that  I  obey  you  and  give  you  up! 
A  man  finds  an  indefinable  ghastly  sweetness  in  obeying  the 
woman  he  loves,  even  when  she  bids  him  leave  her.  You  are 
right,  and  I  condemn  myself.  Long  ago  I  failed  to  appreciate 
a  young  girl's  devotion,  it  is  just  that  my  passion  should  be 
unappreciated  to-day.  But  I  did  not  think  that  the  only 
woman  to  whom  I  had  given  my  heart  would  take  it  upon 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  299 

herself  to  wreak  that  revenge.  I  should  never  have  suspected 
the  possibility  of  so  much  cruelty,  so  much  virtue  perhaps,  in 
a  heart  that  seemed  to  me  so  tender  and  so  loving.  I  have 
but  just  realized  the  extent  of  my  love,  it  has  survived  the 
most  excruciating  of  all  pangs,  the  contempt  that  you  mani- 
fest for  me  in  shattering  without  regret  the  bonds  by  which 
we  were  united.  Adieu  forever.  I  retain  the  humble  pride  of 
repentance  and  am  about  to  seek  a  station  in  which  I  can  ex- 
piate the  sins  for  which  you,  my  interpreter  in  heaven,  have 
had  no  mercy.  God,  perhaps,  will  be  more  merciful  than  you. 
My  sufferings,  sufferings  full  of  you,  will  chastise  a  wounded 
heart  which  will  continue  to  bleed  in  solitude;  for  shadow 
and  silence  are  for  wounded  hearts.  No  other  image  of  love 
will  ever  be  imprinted  on  my  heart.  Although  I  am  not  a 
woman,  I  understood  when  I  said  to  you  :  "/  love  you  !  "  that  I 
pledged  myself  for  my  whole  life.  No,  those  words  uttered 
in  the  ear  of  my  beloved  were  not  a  lie ;  if  I  could  change,  she 
would  be  justified  in  her  contempt ;  so  you  will  be  the  idol  of 
my  solitude  forever.  Repentance  and  love  are  two  virtues 
which  should  inspire  all  the  others ;  and  so,  despite  the  gulf 
that  separates  us  henceforth,  you  will  always  be  the  moving 
principle  of  my  acts.  Although  you  have  filled  my  heart  with 
bitterness,  no  bitter  thoughts  against  you  will  find  a  lodgment 
there;  it  would  be  a  bad  beginning  of  my  new  work  not  to 
cleanse  my  heart  of  all  leaven.  Adieu,  then,  to  the  only  heart 
I  love  on  this  earth,  the  heart  from  which  I  have  been  driven 
forth  !  Never  will  the  word  have  expressed  deeper  sentiments, 
or  greater  tenderness ;  for  does  it  not  bear  away  from  me  a 
heart  and  a  life  which  it  is  in  no  man's  power  to  bring  back? 
Adieu !    To  you  peace,  to  me  all  the  unhappiness ! '" 

When  the  two  letters  had  been  read,  Genestas  and 
Benassis  looked  at  each  other  for  a  moment,  under 
the  spell  of  sad  thoughts  which  they  did  not  impart 
to  each  other. 

"After  I  had  sent  this  last  letter,  of  which,  as  you 


300  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

see,  I  retained  the  rough  draft,  which  represents  to- 
day all  my  joys, — joys  that  are  withered  now," — 
resumed  Benassis,  "I  fell  into  an  indescribably 
depressed  condition.  All  the  bonds  that  can  attach 
a  man  to  life  on  this  earth  were  united  in  that  chaste 
hope,  thenceforth  and  forever  blasted.  I  must  bid 
farewell  to  the  joys  of  legitimate  love,  and  allow  the 
generous  ideas  that  were  taking  root  in  the  depths 
of  my  heart  to  perish.  The  cravings  of  a  repentant 
soul,  thirsty  for  the  beautiful,  the  honorable,  the 
good,  were  denied  by  people  of  genuine  piety.  For 
a  moment,  monsieur,  my  mind  was  agitated  by  the 
most  extravagant  resolutions,  but  luckily  the  sight 
of  my  son  subdued  them.  1  felt  my  affection  for 
him  increase  by  all  the  misery  of  which  he  was  the 
innocent  cause,  but  for  which  I  could  blame  no  one 
but  myself.  He  became,  therefore,  my  only  conso- 
lation. At  the  age  of  thirty-four- 1  could  still  hope  to 
be  useful  to  my  country  in  some  noble  way;  I  deter- 
Ttitned  to  become  a  celebrated  man,  in  order  to  efface 
by  my  renown,  or  by  the  glamour  of  power,  the  sin 
which  stained  my  son's  birth.  How  many  noble 
sentiments  do  I  owe  to  him,  and  what  zest  he  added 
to  life  during  the  time  that  my  mind  was  occupied 
with  his  future! — I  am  suffocating!"  cried  Benassis. 
"  After  eleven  years,  I  cannot  even  yet  bear  to 
think  of  that  terrible  year. — Monsieur,  I  lost  that 
child!" 

The  doctor  ceased  to  speak,  and  hid  his  face  in  his 
hands,  which  he  removed  again  when  he  had  re- 
covered his  tranquillity  somewhat.     Genestas  was 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  30I 

unable  to  restrain  his  emotion  at  sight  of  the  tears 
which  filled  his  host's  eyes. 

**  Monsieur,  that  thunderbolt  uprooted  me  at  first," 
continued  Benassis.  "I  did  not  bask  in  the  light  of 
healthy  morals  until  after  I  was  transplanted  into 
other  soil  than  that  of  the  social  world.  1  did  not 
recognize  until  later  the  hand  of  God  in  my  misfor- 
tunes, and  later  I  was  able  to  resign  myself  by 
listening  to  His  voice.  But  my  resignation  was  long 
in  coming,  my  excitable  nature  was  bound  to  awake 
again;  I  expended  the  last  flashes  of  my  impetuosity 
in  one  last  outbreak,  I  hesitated  a  long  time  before 
choosing  the  only  course  that  it  befits  a  Catholic  to 
adopt.  At  first  I  was  determined  to  kill  myself.  As 
everything  that  had  happened  had  tended  to  develop 
the  sentiment  of  melancholy  in  me  beyond  all  meas- 
ure, I  decided  upon  that  act  of  despair  in  cold  blood. 
I  thought  that  we  were  justified  in  turning  our 
backs  upon  life,  when  life  had  turned  its  back 
upon  us.  Suicide  seemed  to  me  perfectly  natural. 
Sorrow  certainly  causes  in  the  soul  of  man  the  same 
ravages  that  intense  pain  causes  in  his  body;  now, 
an  intelligent  being,  suffering  from  a  mental  disease, 
surely  has  the  right  to  kill  himself,  just  as  the  lamb 
suffering  from  tournis  beats  out  his  brains  against  a 
tree.  Are  ills  of  the  mind  more  readily  cured  than 
bodily  ills.?  1  still  doubt  it.  I  cannot  say  which  is 
the  more  cowardly,  the  man  who  always  hopes  or 
the  man  who  abandons  hope.  Suicide  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  last  paroxysm  of  a  mental  disease, 
just  as  natural  death  is  of  physical  disease;  but,  as 


302  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

mental  life  is  subject  to  the  special  laws  of  the  human 
will,  should  not  its  cessation  be  in  accord  with  the 
manifestations  of  the  intelligence?  So  that  it  is  the 
thought  that  does  the  killing,  not  the  pistol.  More- 
over, does  not  the  chance  that  strikes  us  down  at  the 
moment  when  life  is  all  happiness  absolve  the  man 
who  refuses  to  drag  out  a  wretched  life?  But, 
monsieur,  my  meditations  during  those  days  of 
mourning  led  my  mind  to  loftier  considerations. 

"  For  some  time  I  was  a  sharer  in  the  noble 
sentiments  of  pagan  antiquity;  but,  while  seeking 
therein  new  privileges  for  man,  I  thought  that  I 
could,  by  the  light  of  modern  knowledge,  go  deeper 
than  the  ancients  into  the  questions  long  ago  re- 
duced to  philosophical  systems.  Epicurus  believed 
in  suicide.  Indeed,  it  was  the  complement  of  his 
moral  system,  which  demanded  sensual  enjoyment 
at  any  price;  failing  that  essential  condition,  it  was 
pleasant  and  permissible  for  the  animate  being  to 
seek  the  repose  of  inanimate  nature;  man's  only 
aim  being  happiness  or  the  hope  of  happiness,  death 
became  a  blessing  to  him  who  suffered  and  suffered 
without  hope:  to  inflict  death  upon  one's  self  volun- 
tarily was  the  climax  of  common  sense.  He  did  not 
praise  that  act,  he  did  not  reprove  it;  he  simply 
said,  as  he  poured  out  a  libation  to  Bacchus:  'Death 
is  nothing  to  laugh  at,  nothing  to  weep  about. ' 

"  More  moral  and  more  thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  doctrine  of  duty  than  the  Epicureans,  Zeno  and 
all  the  Portico  enjoined  suicide  on  the  Stoic  in  cer- 
tain cases.     This  is  how  they  reasoned:  Man  differs 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  303 

from  the  brute  in  that  he  has  a  sovereign  right  of 
disposal  of  his  person;  take  away  from  him  that 
right  of  life  and  death  over  himself,  and  you  make 
him  a  slave  of  men  and  of  events.  That  well-recog- 
nized right  of  life  and  death  forms  an  effective  coun- 
terpoise to  all  natural  and  social  ills;  that  same 
right,  when  conferred  upon  man  over  his  fellow-man, 
engenders  all  sorts  of  tyranny.  The  power  of  man, 
therefore,  has  no  existence  anywhere  without  unlim- 
ited freedom  in  his  acts:  if  it  is  necessary  to  escape 
the  shameful  consequences  of  an  irremediable  fault, 
the  ordinary  man  swallows  his  shame  and  lives,  the 
wise  man  swallows  hemlock  and  dies;  if  he  must 
contend  for  the  rest  of  his  days  with  the  gout  which 
shatters  his  bones,  with  the  cancer  which  eats  into  his 
face,  the  wise  man  deems  the  moment  an  opportune 
one,  dismisses  the  quacks,  and  bids  a  final  farewell 
to  his  friends,  to  whom  his  presence  on  earth  is  de- 
pressing. What  is  a  man  to  do  when  he  has  fallen 
into  the  power  of  the  tyrant  whom  he  has  fought 
with  arms  in  his  hand.?  the  act  of  submission  is  pre- 
pared, it  only  remains  to  sign  it  or  to  bare  your 
neck:  the  fool  bares  his  neck,  the  coward  signs,  the 
wise  man  ends  with  a  final  act  of  freedom:  he  smites 
himself. 

"'Free  men,' cried  the  Stoic,  'see  that  ye  re- 
main free!  Free  from  your  passions  by  sacrificing 
them  to  your  duties,  free  from  your  fellow-men  by 
showing  them  the  steel  or  the  poison  which  places 
you  out  of  reach  of  their  assaults,  free  from  destiny 
by  fixing  a  point  beyond  which  you  will  allow  it  to 


304  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

retain  no  hold  upon  you,  free  from  prejudices  by  not 
confusing  them  with  duties,  free  from  all  animal 
apprehensions  by  learning  to  conquer  the  carnal 
instinct  that  binds  so  many  wretched  creatures  to 
life.' 

"  Having  stripped  that  reasoning  of  the  philosophic 
jargon  of  the  ancients,  I  fancied  that  I  could  impart 
a  Christian  form  to  it  by  confirming  it  with  the  laws 
of  free  will  that  God  has  given  us  in  order  to  be  able 
some  day  to  pass  judgment  upon  us  before  His  judg- 
ment-seat, and  I  said  to  myself :  *  I  will  support  it 
with  my  voice!' — But,  monsieur,  those  arguments 
forced  me  to  think  of  the  morrow  of  death,  and  I 
found  myself  at  odds  with  my  former  shaken  beliefs. 
When  the  thought  of  eternity  weighs  upon  the  least 
important  of  our  resolutions,  everything  in  life  be- 
comes a  serious  matter.  When  that  thought  acts 
with  all  its  force  upon  a  man's  mind  and  gives  him 
an  indefinable  impression  of  immensity  within,  which 
brings  him  in  contact  with  the  infinite,  things  undergo 
a  singular  change.  From  that  point  of  view,  life  is  a 
very  great  thing  and  a  very  small  thing.  The  con- 
sciousness of  my  sins  did  not  lead  me  to  think  of 
Heaven  so  long  as  I  had  hopes  on  earth,  so  long  as  I 
found  relief  for  my  sufferings  in  some  social  employ- 
ments. To  love,  to  devote  myself  to  the  happiness 
of  a  woman,  to  be  the  head  of  a  family,  was  surely 
to  nourish  worthily  my  painful  anxiety  to  expiate  my 
smarting  sins.  That  attempt  having  failed,  was  it 
not  a  further  expiation  to  consecrate  my  life  to  a 
child  ?    But  when,  after  those  two  efforts  of  my  heart, 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  305 

contempt  and  death  had  put  it  in  mourning  forever, 
when  all  my  feelings  were  wounded  at  once,  and  I 
could  see  nothing  more  on  earth,  I  raised  my  eyes  to 
heaven  and  saw  God  there.  However,  I  tried  to  make 
religion  share  the  responsibility  for  my  death.  I  read 
the  Gospels  anew  and  found  no  passage  there  in 
which  suicide  is  forbidden;  but  the  reading  filled  my 
heart  with  the  divine  thought  of  the  Saviour  of  man- 
kind. To  be  sure,  He  says  nothing  there  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  but  He  speaks  of  the  beauti- 
ful kingdom  of  His  Father;  He  nowhere  forbids  parri- 
cide, but  He  condemns  everything  that  is  wrong. 
The  glory  of  His  evangelists  and  the  proof  of  their 
divine  mission  is  not  so  much  their  having  made 
laws  as  their  having  spread  throughout  the  world  the 
spirit  of  the  new  laws.  Thereupon  the  courage  that 
a  man  displays  in  killing  himself  seemed  to  me  to  be 
his  own  condemnation:  when  he  feels  that  he  has  the 
strength  to  die,  he  should  have  the  strength  to  strug- 
gle on;  to  refuse  to  suffer  is  not  strength,  but  weak- 
ness; furthermore,  to  lay  life  aside  from  discourage- 
ment is  to  abjure  the  Christian  faith  which  Jesus 
founded  on  the  sublime  words:  'Blessed  are  they  who 
suffer! '  So  that  suicide  no  longer  seemed  to  me  justifi- 
able under  any  circumstances,  not  even  in  the  case  of 
the  man  who,  through  a  false  conception  of  grandeur 
of  soul,  makes  away  with  himself  the  moment  before 
the  headsman  strikes  him  with  his  axe.  By  allow- 
ing himself  to  be  crucified,  Jesus  Christ  enjoined 
upon  us  all  to  obey  all  human  laws  even  though 
they  were  unjustly  enforced.    The  word  resignation, 


306  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

carved  on  the  cross,  so  intelligible  to  all  those  who 
are  able  to  read  the  sacred  characters,  appeared  to 
me  in  its  divine  brilliancy. 

"  I  still  possessed  eighty  thousand  francs;  my  first 
impulse  was  to  go  far  away  from  mankind,  to  spend 
the  rest  of  my  life  vegetating  in  the  wilds  of  some 
country  districts;  but  misanthropy,  a  species  of 
vanity  concealed  beneath  a  hedgehog's  skin,  is  not  a 
Catholic  virtue.  A  misanthrope's  heart  does  not 
bleed,  it  contracts,  and  mine  bled  in  all  its  veins. 
As  I  thought  of  the  laws  of  the  Church,  of  the 
resources  it  offers  to  the  afflicted,  1  came  to  realize 
the  beauty  of  prayer  in  solitude,  and  it  became  my 
fixed  idea  to  enter  into  religion,  according  to  the 
beautiful  expression  of  our  fathers.  Although  my 
mind  was  firmly  made  up,  I  reserved  to  myself, 
nevertheless,  the  privilege  of  scrutinizing  the  means 
I  must  employ  in  order  to  attain  my  end.  Having 
turned  the  remnant  of  my  fortune  into  cash,  I  left 
Paris,  almost  at  peace.  Peace  in  the  Lord  was  a 
hope  which  could  not  betray  me.  Attracted  at  first 
by  the  regulations  of  Saint-Bruno,  I  came  on  foot 
to  the  Grande-Chartreuse,  absorbed  by  serious 
thoughts.  That  was  a  solemn  day  to  me.  I  had  no 
anticipation  of  the  majestic  spectacle  presented  by 
the  road  I  was  to  travel,  where  some  superhuman 
power  makes  itself  manifest  at  every  step.  The 
overhanging  cliffs,  the  precipices,  the  mountain  tor- 
rents whose  voices  one  hears  in  the  silence,  the 
solitude  bounded  by  lofty  mountains  and  yet  without 
bounds,  that  refuge  to  which  naught  of  man  attains 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  307 

save  his  barren  curiosity,  that  awful  wilderness 
softened  by  the  most  picturesque  creations  of  na- 
ture, those  primeval  firs  and  those  plants  of  yester- 
day— all  tend  to  induce  gravity.  It  would  be  difficult 
to  smile  in  passing  through  the  desert  of  Saint-Bruno, 
for  there  the  spirit  of  melancholy  reigns  triumphant. 
1  saw  the  Grande-Chartreuse,  I  passed  beneath  those 
ancient  silent  arches,  I  heard  the  water  from  the 
spring  falling  drop  by  drop.  I  entered  a  cell  to  take 
the  measure  of  my  nothingness,  I  breathed  the  pro- 
found peace  that  my  predecessor  had  enjoyed  there, 
and  I  read  with  deep  emotion  the  inscription  he  had 
placed  over  the  door,  according  to  the  cloistral  cus- 
tom; all  the  precepts  of  the  life  1  proposed  to  lead 
were  summed  up  there  by  three  Latin  words:  *Fuge, 
late,  tace.' " 

Genestas  bowed  as  if  he  understood. 

"I  had  decided,"  continued  Benassis.  "That 
cell  with  its  wainscoting  of  fir,  that  hard  bed,  that 
seclusion,  gratified  my  soul.  The  monks  were  in  the 
chapel,  I  went  there  to  pray  with  them.  There  my 
resolutions  faded  away.  Monsieur,  I  do  not  propose 
to  criticise  the  Catholic  Church,  I  am  very  orthodox, 
I  believe  in  its  works  and  its  laws.  But,  when  I 
heard  those  old  men,  unknown  to  the  world  and 
dead  to  the  world,  intoning  their  prayers,  I  realized 
that  there  was  a  sort  of  sublime  egotism  in  the 
depths  of  the  cloister.  That  seclusion  benefits 
only  the  individual  and  is  nothing  more  than  a 
long  suicide.  I  do  not  condemn  it,  monsieur;  if  the 
Church  has  opened  those  tombs,  they  are  doubtless 


308  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

necessary  for  some  Christians  who  are  of  no  use 
to  the  world.  I  believed  that  I  could  do  better 
by  making  my  repentance  beneficial  to  the  social 
world.  On  my  return,  I  devoted  myself  to  con- 
sidering under  what  conditions  I  could  carry  out 
my  thoughts  of  resignation.  Already  I  had,  in 
imagination,  led  the  life  of  a  simple  sailor,  I  had 
sentenced  myself  to  serve  my  country  by  taking 
my  place  in  the  front  rank  in  battle  and  renoun- 
cing forever  all  manifestations  of  the  intellect;  but, 
although  it  was  a  life  of  toil  and  self-sacrifice,  it 
did  not  seem  to  me  sufficiently  useful.  Was  it  not, 
in  a  measure,  defeating  the  purposes  of  God.?  If 
He  had  endowed  me  with  some  mental  force,  was 
it  not  my  duty  to  employ  it  for  the  welfare  of  my 
fellow-men.?  And  then,  if  I  may  speak  freely,  1  felt 
within  me  a  craving  for  expansion  that  I  cannot 
describe,  a  craving  which  purely  mechanical  obli- 
gations served  only  to  wound.  I  saw  in  the  sailor's 
life  no  pasturage  for  the  kindness  that  results  from 
my  mental  make-up,  just  as  each  flower  gives  forth 
its  own  special  perfume.  I  was,  as  I  have  already 
told  you,  obliged  to  sleep  here.  During  the  night 
1  fancied  that  I  heard  a  command  from  God  in  the 
sympathetic  thoughts  inspired  by  the  condition  of 
this  poor  province.  I  had  experienced  the  painful 
joys  of  maternity,  I  resolved  to  abandon  myself  to 
them  absolutely,  to  satisfy  that  feeling  in  a  more 
extended  sphere  than  that  of  mothers,  by  becoming 
a  sister  of  charity  for  a  whole  province,  by  con- 
stantly healing  the  sores  of  the  poor.     God's  finger 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  309 

seemed  to  me  to  have  marked  out  my  destiny  in 
bold  characters,  when  I  reflected  that  the  first 
serious  thought  of  my  youth  had  inclined  me  to 
the  medical  profession,  and  I  determined  to  practise 
it  here.  I  had  said  in  my  letter:  'for  wounded 
hearts,  shadow  and  silence;^  what  I  had  promised 
myself  to  do,  I  determined  to  carry  out.  I  had 
entered  on  the  path  of  silence  and  resignation. 

"  The  Carthusian's  *fuge,  late,  tace,'  is  my  motto 
here,  my  work  is  an  active  prayer,  my  moral  sui- 
cide is  the  life  of  this  district,  where  I  take  keen  de- 
light in  sowing  happiness  and  joy,  in  giving  what  I 
have  not,  by  putting  forth  my  hand.  The  habit 
of  living  with  peasants,  my  separation  from  the 
world,  have  really  transformed  me.  My  face  has 
changed  in  expression,  it  has  accustomed  itself  to 
the  sun,  which  has  wrinkled  and  hardened  it.  I 
have  acquired  the  carriage  of  a  countryman,  his 
speech,  his  costume,  his  free  and  easy  manners, 
his  ignorance  of  anything  like  dissimulation.  My 
Parisian  friends  and  the  fine  ladies  whose  cicisbeo 
I  was  would  never  recognize  in  me  the  man  who 
was  momentarily  the  fashion,  the  sybarite  accus- 
tomed to  the  trivialities,  the  luxury,  the  refine- 
ments of  Paris.  To-day  I  am  absolutely  indifferent 
to  everything  that  is  external,  as  well  as  to  all 
those  who  move  under  the  guidance  of  a  single 
thought.  I  have  no  other  object  in  life  than  to 
leave  it,  I  do  not  intend  to  do  anything  to  anticipate 
or  hasten  the  end,  but  I  shall  lie  down  to  die  without 
regret,  on  the  day  when  the  summons  comes. 


3IO  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"Such,  monsieur,  in  all  frankness,  are  the  main 
events  of  my  life  prior  to  my  coming  here.  I  have 
concealed  none  of  my  faults,  they  have  been  great, 
they  are  similar  to  those  committed  by  some  other 
men.  1  have  suffered  much,  I  suffer  every  day; 
but  I  have  looked  upon  niy  sufferings  as  the  essen- 
tial condition  of  a  happy  future.  Nevertheless,  in 
spite  of  my  resignation,  there  are  some  pangs 
against  which  I  am  helpless.  To-day  1  almost  gave 
way  to  secret  agony,  in'  your  presence,  unknown 
to  you — " 

Genestas  leaped  from  his  chair. 

"Yes,  Captain  Bluteau,  you  were  present.  Did 
you  not  point  to  Mfere  Colas's  bed  when  we  laid 
Jacques  down?  Ah!  well,  if  it  is  impossible  for 
me  to  look  at  a  child  without  thinking  of  the  angel 
I  have  lost,  judge  of  my  suffering  in  putting  to  bed 
a  child  who  is  doomed  to  die!  I  cannot  look  coldly 
upon  a  child — " 

Genestas  turned  pale. 

"Yes,  the  pretty  fair  heads,  the  innocent  faces 
of  the  children  I  meet,  always  speak  to  me  of  my 
misfortunes  and  renew  my  torments.  Indeed,  it  is 
a  terrible  thing  to  me  to  think  that  so  many  people 
thank  me  for  the  little  good  I  do  here,  when  that 
good  is  the  fruit  of  my  remorse.  You  alone  know, 
captain,  the  secret  of  my  life.  If  I  had  drawn  my 
courage  from  a  purer  sentiment  than  the  conscious- 
ness of  my  faults,  I  should  be  very  happy!  but  in 
that  case  I  should  have  had  nothing  to  tell  you 
of  myself." 


ELEGIES 

His  narrative  ended,  Benassis  observed  on  the 
soldier's  face  a  profoundly  thoughtful  expression 
that  impressed  him.  Touched  to  find  that  he  had 
been  so  thoroughly  understood,  he  was  sorry  that 
he  had  caused  his  guest  discomfort,  and  he  said 
to  him: 

"  But,  Captain  Bluteau,  my  misfortunes — " 

**  Do  not  call  me  Captain  Bluteau!"  cried  Genes- 
tas,  interrupting  him  and  rising  abruptly  with  an 
impulsive  movement  that  seemed  to  indicate  some 
dissatisfaction  with  himself.  "  There  is  no  Captain 
Bluteau — I  am  a  blackguard!" 

Benassis  stared  at  Genestas  in  intense  amazement 
as  he  strode  back  and  forth,  like  a  bee  trying  to  find 
an  outlet  from  the  room  he  has  entered  by  mistake. 

"  But  who  are  you,  then,  monsieur?"  demanded 
Benassis. 

"Ah!  that's  just  it!"  replied  the  soldier,  returning 
and  standing  in  front  of  the  physician,  whom  he 
dared  not  look  in  the  face.  "  I  have  deceived  you!" 
he  continued,  in  an  altered  voice.  "  For  the  first  time 
in  my  life  I  have  lied,  and  I  am  well  punished  for  it, 
(311) 


312  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

for  I  cannot  now  tell  you  the  purpose  either  of  my 
visit  or  of  my  infernal  spying.  Since  I  have,  so  to 
speak,  caught  a  glimpse  of  your  soul,  I  should  have 
preferred  to  receive  a  blow  rather  than  hear  you  call 
me  Bluteau!  You  may  forgive  me  for  the  imposture, 
but  I  can  never  forgive  myself,  Pierre- Joseph  Genes- 
tas,  who  would  not  lie  before  a  council  of  war  to  save 
my  life!" 

"You  are  Commandant  Genestas?"  cried  Benas- 
sis,  rising. 

He  took  the  officer's  hand,  pressed  it  very  cor- 
dially, and  said: 

"  Monsieur,  as  you  said  just  now,  we  were  friends 
without  knowing  each  other.  I  have  had  a  very 
earnest  desire  to  see  you  after  hearing  Monsieur 
Gravier  talk  about  you:  'A  man  out  of  Plutarch!* 
he  said  to  me  of  you.'* 

"lam  not  of  Plutarch's  kind,"  replied  Genestas, 
"  I  am  unworthy  of  you  and  I  could  beat  myself.  I 
should  have  confessed  my  secret  to  you  frankly. 
But  no!  I  did  well  to  assume  a  mask  and  to  come 
here  in  person  in  quest  of  information  concerning 
you.  1  know  now  that  I  must  hold  my  peace.  If  I 
had  acted  openly,  I  should  have  caused  you  pain. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  ever  bring  the  slightest 
sorrow  upon  you!" 

"  But  I  don't  understand  you,  commandant." 

"  Let  us  change  the  subject.  I  am  not  ill,  I  have 
had  a  good  day,  and  I  shall  go  away  to-morrow. 
When  you  come  to  Grenoble,  you  will  find  one 
friend  more  there,  and  not  a  friend  to  be  laughed  at. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  313 

Pierre-Joseph  Genestas's  purse,  his  sword,  his  blood, 
his  all,  are  at  your  service.  After  all,  you  have 
planted  your  words  in  good  ground.  When  I  am  re- 
tired, 1  will  find  some  hole  to  go  to,  I  will  be  the 
mayor  there  and  try  to  imitate  you.  If  I  lack  your 
knowledge,  I  will  study." 

"You  are  right,  monsieur;  the  landowner  who 
employs  his  time  in  correcting  a  simple  lack  of  judg- 
ment in  the  treatment  of  land  in  a  commune  does 
his  country  as  much  good  as  the  best  physician  can 
do:  one  soothes  the  pain  of  a  few  men,  the  other 
heals  the  wounds  of  his  country.  But  you  arouse 
my  curiosity  strangely.  Can  I  be  of  service  to  you 
in  any  way.?" 

"Of  service.-*"  said  the  commandant,  in  a  trem- 
bling voice.  "  My  God!  dear  Monsieur  Benassis, 
the  service  that  I  came  here  to  ask  you  to  render  me 
has  become  almost  impossible.  Look  you,  I  have 
killed  many  Christians  in  my  life,  but  one  may  kill 
people  and  still  have  a  kind  heart;  and  so,  rough  as 
I  may  appear,  I  am  able  none  the  less  to  understand 
certain  things." 

"  Pray,  speak!" 

"  No,  I  do  not  choose  to  pain  you  knowingly." 

"  Oh!  commandant,  I  can  endure  much  suffering." 

"  Monsieur,"  said  the  soldier,  trembling,  "the  life 
of  a  child  is  involved." 

Benassis's  forehead  suddenly  contracted,  but  he 
made  a  gesture  to  beg  Genestas  to  continue. 

"A  child,"  resumed  the  commandant,  "who  may 
yet  be  saved  by  constant,  painstaking  care.    Where 


314  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

was  1  to  find  a  doctor  capable  of  devoting  himself  to 
such  a  patient?  Surely  not  in  a  city.  I  had  heard 
of  you  as  an  excellent  man,  but  I  was  afraid  of  being 
deceived  by  an  undeserved  reputation.  So,  before 
entrusting  my  little  one  to  this  Monsieur  Benassis  of 
whom  such  fine  things  were  told  me,  I  determined  to 
study  him  myself.     Now — " 

"Enough,"  said  the  doctor.  "So  this  child  is 
your  own.""' 

"  No,  my  dear  Monsieur  Benassis,  no.  In  order 
to  explain  this  mystery,  I  must  tell  you  a  story  in 
which  I  do  not  play  the  most  enviable  part;  but  you 
have  confided  your  secrets  to  me,  so  I  may  tell  you 
mine." 

"One  moment,  commandant,"  said  the  doctor, 
summoning  Jacquotte,  who  came  at  once  and  whom 
he  asked  to  bring  his  tea.  "You  see,  comman- 
dant, at  night,  when  everyone  else  is  asleep,  I  can- 
not sleep! — My  sorrows  bear  heavily  on  me  then, 
and  I  try  to  forget  them  by  drinking  tea.  That 
beverage  produces  a  sort  of  nervous  intoxication,  a 
sleep  without  which  I  could  not  live.  Do  you  still 
decline  to  take  some.?" 

"For  my  part,"  said  Genestas,  "I  prefer  your 
Hermitage  wine." 

"  Very  good. — Jacquotte,  bring  some  wine  and 
biscuits,"  said  Benassis  to  the  servant. — "We  will 
take  our  little  nightcap,"  he  added,  addressing  his 
guest. 

"  This  tea  must  do  you  a  great  deal  of  harm!" 
said  Genestas. 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  315 

"  It  causes  horrible  attacks  of  gout,  but  I  could 
never  give  up  the  habit,  it  is  too  soothing,  it  gives 
me  a  moment  every  evening  when  life  ceases  to  be 
a  burden. — Go  on,  I  am  listening;  perhaps  your  story 
will  deaden  the  too  vivid  impression  of  the  memories 
I  have  evoked." 

"  My  dear  monsieur,"  said  Genestas,  putting  his 
empty  glass  on  the  mantel,  "  after  the  retreat  from 
Moscow,  my  regiment  refitted  in  a  small  town  in 
Poland.  We  purchased  horses  there  at  their  weight 
in  gold,  and  we  stayed  in  garrison  there  until  the 
Emperor's  return.  So  far,  so  good.  I  must  tell  you 
that  I  had  a  friend  at  that  time.  During  the  retreat 
I  was  saved  more  than  once  by  the  efforts  of  a 
quartermaster  named  Renard,  who  did  things  for  me 
of  the  sort  that  should  make  two  men  brothers, 
subject  to  the  exigencies  of  discipline.  We  were 
quartered  in  the  same  house,  one  of  the  rats'  nests 
built  of  wood,  in  which  a  whole  family  lived,  al- 
though you  would  have  said  it  was  not  big  enough 
to  put  a  horse  in." 

"That  hovel  belonged  to  certain  Jews  y^ho  carried 

on   their  thirty-six  trades  thereX^snrd^^'the  old  Jew 

father,  whose  fingers  were  never  frozen  too  stiff  to 

Handle  gold,   made  a  very  good  thing  during  our 

disasters.     Those  people  live  in  filth  and  die  in  gold. 

"""Tlieir  house  waJ  "built  over  cellars,  a^  5f  wodd,  of 

course,  in  which   they  had  stowed  their  children, 

notably  a  dalighter  as  1 0 vely~a^|^a-^Jew^^  can  be 

*^Tien  she  keeps  herself'  clean'  anaTs~TTot  a  BTo^nde. 

"She  was  seventeen  years  old,  as  white  as' snow,  with 


3l6  THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

velvety  eyes,  lashes  as  black  as  rat-tails,  thick, 
glossy  half  that  made  one  long  to  handle  it;  a  truly 
perfect  creature !~"1  was  the  first  to  discover  those 
singular  arrangements,  monsieur,  one  evening  when 
I  was  supposed  to  be  in  bed,  but  was  strolling  tran- 
quilly up  and  down  the  street,  smoking  my  pipe. 
The  children  were  swarming  there  in  a  heap  like  a 
litter  of  puppies.  It  was  an  amusing  sight.  The 
father  and  mother  were  taking  supper  with  them. 
By  looking  hard  through  the  clouds  of  pipe-smoke 
emitted  by  the  father,  I  discovered  the  young 
Jewess,  like  a  bright  new  napoleon  in  a  heap  of 
copper  sous.  I  have  never  had  time  to  reflect  upon 
love,  my  dear  Benassis;  but  when  I  saw  that  girl,  I 
realized  that  hitherto  I  had  simply  yielded  to  the 
impulses  of  nature;  but  now  everything  was  in- 
volved, head,  heart,  and  all  the  rest.  I  fell  in  love 
from  head  to  foot;  oh!  it  was  a  serious  case.  I 
stood  there  smoking  my  pipe,  intently  watching  the 
Jewess  until  she  had  blown  out  her  candle  and  gone 
to  bed.  I  couldn't  close  my  eyes!  I  passed  the 
whole  night  loading  my  pipe,  smoking  it,  and  walk- 
ing up  and  down  the  street.  I  had  never  been  like 
that.  It  was  the  only  time  in  my  life  that  I  ever 
thought  of  marriage.  When  morning  came,  I  saddled 
my  horse  and  had  a  two  hours'  trot  in  the  country 
to  cool  my  brain;  and  I  almost  foundered  my  horse, 
without  noticing  it." 

Genestas  paused,  glanced  uneasily  at  his  new 
friend,  and  said: 

"  Excuse   me,  Benassis,  I   am   not  an   orator,  I 


THE   COUNTRY  DOCTOR  317 

speak  as  the  words  come  into  my  mind;  if  I  were  in 
a  salon,  I  should  be  embarrassed,  but  with  you,  and 
here  in  the  country — " 

"  Go  on,"  said  the  doctor. 

"When  I  returned  to  my  room,  I  found  Renard 
there  very  busily  engaged.  Believing  that  I  had 
been  killed  in  a  duel,  he  was  cleaning  his  pistols  and 
intended  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  the  man  who  had 
put  my  light  out. — Ah!  there  was  the  true  pilgrim's 
character.  I  confided  my  passion  to  Renard,  and 
showed  him  the  children's  kennel.  As  my  Renard 
understood  the  dialect  of  those  heathens,  I  asked  him 
to  help  me  to  make  my  advances  to  the  father  and 
mother,  and  to  try  and  establish  a  correspondence 
with  Judith.  Her  name  was  Judith.  In  a  word,  mon- 
sieur, for  a  fortnight  I  was  the  happiest  of  men,  be- 
cause the  Jew  and  his  wife  allowed  us  to  sup  with 
Judith  every  night.  You  know  all  about  such  things, 
I  will  not  annoy  you  with  details;  but,  if  you  are  not 
acquainted  with  tobacco,  you  don't  appreciate  an 
honest  man's  pleasure  as  he  tranquilly  smokes  his 
pipe  with  his  friend  Renard  and  the  girl's  father, 
with  his  princess  in  presence.  It  was  very  pleasant. 
But  I  should  tell  you  that  Renard  was  a  Parisian, 
and  of  a  respectable  family.  His  father,  who  did  a 
large  business  in  the  grocery  line,  had  educated  him 
to  be  a  notary,  and  he  knew  something;  but,  having 
been  caught  by  the  conscription,  he  had  to  bid  adieu 
to  the  desk.  Indeed,  he  was  built  to  wear  a  uniform, 
had  a  figure  as  slender  as  a  girl's,  and  was  perfectly 
familiar  with  the  art  of  cajoling  people.     It  was  he 


31 8  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

whom  Judith  loved,  and  she  cared  as  much  for  me 
as  a  horse  cares  for  roast  chicken.  While  I  went 
into  ecstasies  and  took  journeys  to  the  moon  as  I 
gazed  at  Judith,  my  Renard,  who  came  rightly  by 
his  name,  you  see!  did  his  work  underground;  the 
traitor  and  the  girl  plotted  together,  and  to  such 
good  purpose  that  they  were  married  according  to 
the  fashion  of  the  country,  because  the  necessary 
authorizations  would  have  taken  too  long  to  arrive. 
But  he  promised  to  marry  her  according  to  French 
law,  if  the  marriage  should  ever  happen  to  be  at- 
tacked. The  fact  is  that  in  France  Madame  Renard 
became  Mademoiselle  Judith  once  more.  If  I  had 
known  about  it,  I  would  have  killed  Renard,  out  of 
hand,  without  giving  him  time  to  whistle;  but  the 
father,  mother  and  daughter,  and  my  quartermaster 
all  understood  one  another  as  perfectly  as  pick- 
pockets at  a  fair.  While  I  was  smoking  my  pipe 
and  adoring  Judith  like  the  Blessed  Sacrament, 
my  Renard  was  making  appointments  with  her,  and 
managing  his  own  interests  very  handily. 

"You  are  the  only  person  on  earth  to  whom  I 
have  ever  mentioned  the  story,  which  I  call  infa- 
mous; I  have  always  wondered  why  a  man  who 
would  die  of  shame  if  he  should  steal  a  piece  of 
gold  will  steal  his  friend's  wife,  his  happiness,  his 
life,  without  scruple.  However,  my  rascals  were 
married  and  happy,  while  1  still  sat  there  every 
evening  at  supper,  admiring  Judith  like  an  idiot,  and 
answering  like  a  tenor  the  advances  she  made  to 
close   my  eyes.     You  can  imagine  that  they  paid 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  319 

extremely  dear  for  their  rascality.  On  my  word  as 
a  man  of  honor!  God  pays  more  attention  to  the 
affairs  of  this  world  than  we  imagine. 

"  Suddenly  the  Russians  are  upon  us.  The 
campaign  of  1813  begins.  We  are  invaded.  One 
fine  morning  the  order  comes  for  us  to  be  on 
the  battle-field  of  Lutzen  at  a  stated  hour.  The 
Emperor  knew  what  he  was  about  when  he  ordered 
us  to  start  at  once.  The  Russians  had  turned  our 
flank.  One  colonel  made  a  mess  of  it  going  to  say 
adieu  to  a  Polish  girl  who  lived  some  distance  from 
the  town,  and  the  vanguard  of  Cossacks  just  caught 
him  and  his  escort.  We  had  only  time  to  mount 
and  form  outside  the  town,  to  skirmish  with  the 
cavalry,  and  drive  back  my  Russians  so  that  we 
could  slip  away  during  the  night.  We  charged  them 
for  three  hours  and  did  some  really  good  work. 
While  we  were  fighting,  the  ammunition-train  and 
baggage  started  away  from  the  town.  We  had  a 
battery  of  artillery  and  large  supplies  of  powder  of 
which  the  Emperor  was  greatly  in  need,  and  they 
must  be  taken  to  him  at  any  price.  Our  stout  de- 
fence deceived  the  Russians,  who  believed  that  we 
were  sustained  by  a  whole  army  corps.  But  they 
soon  learned  their  mistake  through  spies,  and  found 
out  that  they  had  only  one  regiment  of  cavalry  and 
our  infantry  magazines  to  deal  with.  Thereupon, 
monsieur,  toward  evening,  they  made  an  attack  cal- 
culated to  carry  everything  before  them,  so  hot  that 
several  of  us  remained  on  the  field.  We  were  sur- 
rounded.    1  was  in  the  front  rank  with  R'enard,  and 


320  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

I  saw  him  fighting  and  charging  like  a  demon,  for  he 
thought  of  his  wife.  Thanks  to  him,  we  were  able  to 
make  our  way  back  to  the  town,  which  our  sick  had 
put  in  a  state  of  defence;  but  it  was  a  pitiful  sight! 
He  and  I  entered  the  town  last;  we  found  our  path 
blocked  by  a  mob  of  Cossacks,  and  we  rode  at 
them.  One  of  the  savages  was  going  to  run  me 
through  with  his  lance,  Renard  saw  him  and  spurred 
his  horse  between  us  to  turn  aside  the  blow;  his 
poor  horse,  a  fine  beast,  on  my  word!  received  the 
steel  and  fell,  dragging  Renard  and  the  Cossack  to 
the  ground.  I  killed  the  Cossack,  seized  Renard  by 
the  arm  and  laid  him  crosswise  in  front  of  me,  like 
a  bag  of  grain. 

"  *  Adieu,  captain,  it's  all  over!'  said  Renard. 

"  'No,  no,'  I  replied,  'we  will  see.' 

**  1  was  in  the  town  then,  I  dismounted  and  set 
him  down  on  some  straw  against  a  house.  His 
skull  was  crushed  and  his  brains  oozing  out  into  his 
hair,  and  yet  he  talked! — Oh!  he  was  a  fine  fellow. 

"'We  are  quits,'  he  said,  'I  give  you  my  life, 
and  I  have  taken  Judith  away  from  you.  Take 
care  of  her  and  her  child,  if  she  has  one.  Yes, 
marry  her.' 

"  Monsieur,  obeying  my  first  impulse,  I  left  him 
lying  there  like  a  dog;  but,  when  my  rage  had 
passed,  I  went  back.  He  was  dead.  The  Cossacks 
had  set  the  town  on  fire;  just  then  I  remembered 
Judith;  I  went  to  look  for  her,  took  her  up  behind 
me,  and,  thanks  to  the  speed  of  my  horse,  overtook 
the  regiment,  which  had  effected  its  retreat.     As  for 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  $21 

the  Jew  and  his  family,  that  was  the  last  of  them! 
^^hey  all  disappeared  like  rats.  Judith  was  alone 
waiting  for  Renard;  I  told  her  nothing  at  first,  you 
understand.  Monsieur,  I  had  to  look  after  that 
woman  during  all  the  disasters  of  the  campaign  of 
1813,  to  find  lodgings  for  her,  to  make  her  comfort- 
able, in  a  word,  to  take  care  of  her,  and  I  believe 
that  she  hardly  realized  the  position  we  were  in.  I 
intended  to  keep  her  always  ten  leagues  away  from 
us,  toward  France;  she  gave  birth  to  a  boy  while 
we  were  fighting  at  Hanau.  I  was  wounded  in  that 
affair,  I  joined  Judith  at  Strasbourg,  then  returned  to 
Paris,  for  I  was  unlucky  enough  to  be  in  bed  during 
the  campaign  in  France.  But  for  that  wretched 
luck,  I  should  have  gone  into  the  grenadiers  of  the 
guard,  the  Emperor  would  have  promoted  me.  How- 
ever, monsieur,  I  was  obliged  to  support  a  woman 
and  child  who  didn't  belong  to  me,  and  I  had  three 
broken  ribs!  My  pay,  you  understand,  wasn't  all 
France.  Old  Renard,  a  toothless  old  rascal,  would 
have  none  of  his  daughter-in-law;  the  Jew  father 
had  failed.  Judith  was  dying  of  grief.  One  morn- 
ing she  cried  while  she  was  dressing  my  wound. 

"  *  Judith,'  I  said,  *  your  child  is  lost — ' 

"  *  And  so  am  I!'  said  she. 

"'Nonsense!'  I  replied,  'we'll  just  send  for  the 
necessary  papers,  I'll  marry  you  and  acknowledge 
as  mine  the  child  of — ' 

"  I  couldn't  finish. — Ah!  my  dear  monsieur,  a 
man  could  do  anything  to  earn  the  dying  woman's 
glance  with  which  Judith  thanked  me;  I  found  that 


322  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

I  loved  her  still,  and  from  that  day  her  little  one 
made  his  way  into  my  heart.  While  the  papers 
and  the  Jew  father  and  mother  were  on  the  way, 
the  poor  woman's  death  came  nearer  and  nearer. 
The  day  before  she  died  she  had  strength  enough 
to  dress,  to  adorn  herself,  to  go  through  all  the 
formal  ceremonies  and  sign  the  pile  of  papers;  then, 
when  her  child  had  a  father  and  a  name,  she  went 
back  to  bed,  1  kissed  her  hands  and  her  forehead, 
and  she  died.  That  was  my  wedding!  Two  days 
later,  after  I  had  bought  the  few  feet  of  earth  where 
the  poor  girl  was  buried,  1  found  myself  the  father 
of  a  motherless  boy  whom  I  put  out  to  nurse  during 
the  campaign  of  1815.  Since  then  I  have  taken  care 
of  the  little  rascal  as  if  he  were  really  my  own,  and 
no  one  has  ever  known  my  story,  which  was  not  a 
pleasant  one  to  tell.  His  grandfather  has  gone  to 
the  devil,  he  is  ruined,  and  travels  back  and  forth 
with  his  family  between  Persia  and  Russia.  There's 
a  chance  that  he  may  make  a  fortune,  for  he  seems 
to  know  all  about  precious  stones.  I  sent  the  child 
to  school;  but  latterly  I  have  driven  him  so  in  his 
mathematics  to  get  him  into  the  Polytechnic  and 
have  him  graduate  with  good  results,  that  the 
poor  little  fellow  has  fallen  sick.  His  lungs  are 
weak.  The  doctors  in  Paris  say  that  there's  still  a 
chance  for  him  if  he  could  run  about  in  the  mountain 
air  and  be  properly  looked  after  every  minute  by  a 
man  who  is  interested  in  him.  So  I  thought  of  you, 
and  I  came  here  to  reconnoitre  and  find  out  some- 
thing about  your  ideas  and  your  mode  of  life.    After 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  323 

what  you  have  told  me,  I  couldn't  think  of  inflicting 
that  distress  on  you,  although  we  are  good  friends 
already." 

"  Commandant,"  said  Benassis,  after  a  moment's 
silence,  "  bring  Judith's  child  to  me.  It  is  God's 
will,  I  doubt  not,  that  I  shall  be  subjected  to  this  last 
trial,  and  I  will  accept  it.  1  will  offer  my  suffering 
to  God,  whose  Son  died  on  the  cross.  Moreover, 
my  emotions  during  your  narrative  were  pleasur- 
able; is  not  that  a  good  omen?" 

Genestas  warmly  grasped  both  of  Benassis's  hands 
in  his,  unable  to  restrain  the  tears  that  glistened  in 
his  eyes  and  rolled  down  his  sunburned  cheeks. 

"  Let  us  keep  all  this  secret,"  he  said. 

"Yes,  commandant. — You  have  had  nothing  to 
drink?" 

"  I  am  not  thirsty,"  replied  Genestas.  "  I  am  as 
stupid  as  a  fool." 

"  Well,  when  will  you  bring  him  to  me?" 

*'Why,  to-morrow  if  you  wish.  He  has  been  at 
Grenoble  two  days." 

"  Very  good!  Start  to-morrow  morning  and  come 
back;  I  will  await  you  at  La  Fosseuse's,  where  we 
will  all  four  breakfast  together." 

"Agreed,"  said  Genestas. 

The  two  friends  went  to  bed  mutually  wishing 
each  other  a  good-night.  When  they  reached  the 
landing  that  separated  their  rooms,  Genestas  set 
his  light  on  the  window-sill  and  went  up  to 
Benassis. 

"Tonnerre  de  Dieu  / "  he  exclaimed,  with  ingenuous 


324  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

warmth,  "  I  will  not  leave  you  this  night  without 
telling  you  that  you  are  the  third  Christian  who 
has  made  me  feel  that  there  is  something  up 
yonder!" 

And  he  pointed  to  the  sky. 

The  doctor  replied  with  a  sad  smile,  and  pressed 
very  affectionately  the  hand  that  Genestas  offered 
him. 

The  next  morning,  before  daybreak.  Commandant 
Genestas  started  for  the  city,  and  about  midday  he 
found  himself  on  the  high-road  from  Grenoble  to 
the  village,  near  the  path  that  led  to  La  Fosseuse's. 
He  was  in  one  of  those  light,  open,  four-wheeled 
wagons,  drawn  by  a  single  horse,  which  are  met 
with  in  all  mountainous  districts.  His  companion 
was  a  thin,  pale  young  man,  who  seemed  to  be  no 
more  than  twelve  years  old,  although  he  was  enter- 
ing his  sixteenth  year.  Before  alighting,  the  officer 
looked  about  in  all  directions,  hoping  to  see  a  peas- 
ant who  would  undertake  to  drive  the  wagon  to  Be- 
nassis's  house,  for  the  path  was  too  narrow  to  allow 
them  to  drive  to  La  Fosseuse's.  The  forest-keeper 
happened  to  come  out  on  the  road  and  relieved 
Genestas  from  his  perplexity,  so  that  he  and  his 
adopted  son  could  walk  to  the  place  of  meeting 
through  the  mountain  paths. 

"  Won't  you  be  happy,  Adrien,  running  about  in 
this  lovely  country  for  a  year,  learning  to  hunt  and 
ride,  instead  of  turning  pale  over  your  books?  Just 
look!" 

Adrien  looked  at  the  valley  with  the  listless  glance 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  325 

of  a  sickly  child;  but,  indifferent  as  all  young  people 
are  to  the  beauties  of  nature,  he  said  simply,  with- 
out stopping: 

"You  are  very  good,  father." 

Genestas's  heart  was  touched  by  that  unhealthy 
listlessness,  and  he  did  not  speak  again  to  his  son 
before  they  reached  La  Fosseuse's  house. 

"You  are  prompt,  commandant,"  cried  Benassis, 
rising  from  the  wooden  bench  on  which  he  was 
seated. 

But  he  resumed  his  seat  at  once,  and  remained 
there,  lost  in  thought,  looking  at  Adrien;  he  studied 
slowly  the  tired,  sallow  face,  not  without  a  thrill  of 
admiration  for  the  fine  oval  outlines  which  predomi- 
nated in  that  noble  physiognomy.  The  child,  the 
living  image  of  his  mother,  inherited  from  her  an 
olive  skin  and  beautiful  black  eyes,  intelligent  and 
sad.  All  the  characteristics  of  the  beauty  of  a  Polish 
Jewess  were  found  in  that  head  with  its  abundant 
hair,  too  strong  for  the  frail  body  to  which  it  be- 
longed. 

"Do  you  sleep  well,  my  little  man.?"  Benassis 
asked  him. 

"  Yes,  monsieur." 

"  Show  me  your  knees,  turn  up  your  trousers." 

Adrien  blushed  as  he  unfastened  his  garters  and 
bared  his  knee,  which  the  doctor  felt  with  great 
care. 

"  Good.     Speak,  shout,  shout  loud!" 

Adrien  shouted. 

"Enough!     Give  me  your  hands." 


326  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

The  young  man  held  out  two  soft,  white  hands, 
with  blue  veins  like  a  woman's. 

"  In  what  school  were  you  in  Paris?" 

"  Saint-Louis." 

"Didn't  your  principal  read  his  breviary  during 
the  night.?" 

"  Yes,  monsieur." 

"  Then  you  didn't  go  to  sleep  at  once.?" 

As  Adrien  did  not  reply,  Genestas  said  to  the 
doctor: 

"  The  principal  is  an  estimable  priest;  he  advised 
me  to  take  my  little  trooper  away  on  account  of  his 
health." 

"Well,"  rejoined  Benassis,  plunging  a  searching 
glance  into  Adrien's  trembling  eyes,  "  there  is  still  a 
way  out.  Yes,  we  will  make  a  man  of  this  child. — 
We  will  live  together  like  two  chums,  my  boy!  We 
will  go  to  bed  early  and  get  up  early. — I  will  teach 
your  son  to  ride,  commandant.  After  a  month  or 
two  devoted  to  remaking  his  stomach  by  a  milk 
diet,  I  will  obtain  him  a  permit  to  carry  weapons 
and  to  hunt,  and  I  will  put  him  in  charge  of  Butifer; 
they  will  hunt  chamois  together.  Give  your  son 
four  or  five  months  of  country  life,  and  you  won't 
know  him,  commandant.  Butifer  will  think  himself 
very  lucky!  I  know  the  pilgrim;  he'll  take  you  into 
Switzerland,  my  young  friend,  through  the  Alps, 
drag  you  up  on  top  of  the  mountains  and  make  you 
six  inches  taller  in  six  months;  he'll  bring  the  color 
to  your  cheeks,  strengthen  your  nerves,  and  help  you 
to  forget  your  wretched  school  habits.    Then  you  can 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  327 

go  back  and  resume  your  studies  and  you  will  become 
a  man.  Butifer  is  an  honest  fellow,  we  can  trust 
him  with  the  necessary  money  to  meet  the  expenses 
of  travel  and  your  hunting;  the  responsibility  will 
keep  him  straight  for  six  months  and  it  will  be  so 
much  gained  for  him." 

Genestas's  face  seemed  to  grow  brighter  and 
brighter  at  each  word  the  doctor  spoke, 

"  Let  us  have  some  breakfast.  La  Fosseuse  is  im- 
patient to  see  you,"  said  Benassis,  patting  Adrien's 
cheek. 

"He's  not  consumptive,  then?"  Genestas  asked 
the  doctor,  taking  his  arm  and  leading  him  aside. 

"  No  more  than  you  or  L" 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  him?" 

"  Pshaw!"  answered  Benassis,  "  he's  passing 
through  a  momentary  trouble,  that's  all." 

La  Fosseuse  appeared  in  the  doorway,  and  Ge- 
nestas was  surprised  at  her  simple  yet  dainty  cos- 
tume. She  was  no  longer  the  peasant  woman  of 
the  night  before,  but  a  refined  and  graceful  Parisian, 
whose  glances  he  found  it  difficult  to  meet.  The 
soldier  turned  his  eyes  upon  a  walnut  table,  without 
a  cloth,  so  well  polished  that  it  seemed  to  be  var- 
nished, on  which  were  eggs,  butter,  a  pie,  and  moun- 
tain strawberries  that  filled  the  air  with  perfume. 
The  poor  girl  had  placed  flowers  all  about,  showing 
that  the  day  was  a  holiday  to  her.  At  the  sight,  the 
commandant  could  not  help  coveting  the  simple  house 
and  the  green  lawn;  he  glanced  at  the  peasant  with 
an  expression  indicating  hope  and  doubt  at  once; 


328  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

then  he  turned  his  eyes  upon  Adrien,  to  whom  La 
Fosseuse  was  handing  the  eggs,  busily  attending  to 
his  wants  to  keep  herself  in  countenance. 

"Commandant,"  said  Benassis,  "you  know  at 
what  price  you  receive  hospitality  here.  You  must 
tell  my  Fosseuse  some  military  story." 

"  We  must  let  monsieur  eat  his  breakfast  in  peace 
first;  but,  after  he  has  had  his  coffee — " 

"Of  course,  I  shall  be  very  glad,"  rejoined  the 
commandant,  "  but  I  will  tell  my  story  only  on  one 
condition:  that  you  tell  us  some  anecdote  of  your 
former  life." 

"But,  monsieur,"  she  replied,  blushing,  "noth- 
ing ever  happened  to  me  that  is  worth  the  trouble  of 
telling. — Will  you  have  a  little  of  this  rice  pate,  my 
boy?"  she  said,  seeing  that  Adrien's  plate  was 
empty. 

"Yes,  mademoiselle." 

"  It  is  delicious,"  said  Genestas. 

"What  will  you  say  to  her  coffee,  then?"  cried 
Benassis. 

"  I  should  much  prefer  to  listen  to  our  charming 
hostess." 

"You  go  about  it  in  the  wrong  way,  Genestas," 
said  Benassis. — "Listen,  my  child,"  he  continued, 
addressing  La  Fosseuse  and  pressing  her  hand, 
"this  officer  whom  you  see  by  your  side  conceals  an 
excellent  heart  beneath  a  harsh  exterior,  and  you 
can  speak  here  with  perfect  confidence.  Speak,  or  be 
silent,  we  do  not  propose  to  tease  you.  Poor  child, 
if  you   can   ever   be   understood   and   appreciated, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  329 

you  can  be  by  the  three  persons  with  whom  you 
now  are.  Tell  us  of  your  past  loves,  that  will 
not  be  trenching  on  the  present  secrets  of  your 
heart." 

"Here  comes  Mariette  with  the  coffee,"  she 
replied.  "  When  you  are  all  served,  I  will  tell  you 
of  my  loves. — But  monsieur  le  commandant  will  not 
forget  his  promise.?"  she  added,  with  a  glance,  at 
once  modest  and  aggressive,  at  Genestas. 

"I  am  incapable  of  it,  mademoiselle,"  replied 
Genestas,  respectfully. 

"  At  the  age  of  sixteen,"  said  La  Fosseuse,  "al- 
though I  was  sickly,  I  was  compelled  to  beg  my 
bread  by  the  roadside  in  Savoie.  I  slept  at  Les 
Echelles  in  a  great  manger  filled  with  straw.  The 
innkeeper  who  gave  me  that  place  to  sleep  in  was  a 
good  man,  but  his  wife  couldn't  endure  me  and  was 
always  insulting  me.  It  hurt  me  a  good  deal,  for  I 
wasn't  a  bad  girl,  although  I  was  poor;  I  prayed 
every  morning  and  night,  I  didn't  steal,  I  went 
about  as  God  ordered  me,  asking  for  enough  to  live 
on,  because  I  didn't  know  how  to  do  anything  and 
was  really  sick,  utterly  unable  to  lift  a  hoe  or  wind 
cotton.  Well,  1  was  turned  away  from  the  inn  on 
account  of  a  dog.  I  was  without  friends  or  rela- 
tions, and  I  had  never,  since  I  was  born,  met  a 
glance  that  did  me  good.  Good  mother  Morin,  who 
brought  me  up,  was  dead:  she  was  very  kind  to  me, 
but  I  can  hardly  remember  any  caresses  from  her; 
besides,  the  poor  old  woman  worked  in  the  fields 
like  a  man;  and,  if  she  did  cosset  me,  she  also  hit 


330  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

me  over  the  fingers  with  a  spoon  when  I  was  in  too 
much  of  a  hurry  to  eat  our  soup  out  of  the  bowl. 
Poor  old  woman,  not  a  day  passes  that  I  don't  men- 
tion her  in  my  prayers!  God  grant  that  she  has  a 
happier  life  up  yonder  than  she  had  on  earth,  espe- 
cially a  better  bed;  she  was  always  complaining  of 
the  wretched  pallet  on  which  we  both  slept.  You 
can't  imagine,  my  dear  messieurs,  how  it  hurts  you 
to  receive  nothing  but  insults,  rebuffs,  and  looks 
that  pierce  your  heart  as  if  a  knife  had  been  driven 
into  it.  I  have  known  poor  old  creatures  who  cared 
nothing  at  all  for  it;  but  I  wasn't  born  for  that  trade. 
A  no  always  made  me  cry.  Every  night  I  returned 
home  sadder  than  ever,  and  I  never  got  any  consola- 
tion until  I  had  said  my  prayers.  In  fact,  in  all  God's 
creation,  there  wasn't  a  single  heart  against  which  I 
could  rest  mine!  I  had  only  the  blue  sky  for  a  friend. 
I  was  always  happy  when  the  sky  was  all  blue. 
When  the  wind  had  swept  away  the  clouds,  I  would 
lie  down  in  some  nook  among  the  rocks  and  look  at 
the  sky.  Then  I  would  dream  that  I  was  a  great 
lady.  By  looking  and  looking,  I  would  imagine  that 
I  was  bathed  in  that  blue  expanse;  I  would  imagine 
that  I  was  living  up  there,  I  would  cease  to  feel  any- 
thing weighing  me  down,  but  would  go  up  and  up 
and  become  happy  and  free. — To  return  to  my 
loves, — I  must  tell  you  that  the  innkeeper's  dog 
had  a  little  black  puppy,  pretty  as  a  baby,  all  white, 
with  black  spots  on  its  paws;  I  can  still  see  the  little 
cherub!  The  poor  little  thing  was  the  only  creature 
that  ever  gave  me  a  friendly  glance  in  those  days;  I 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  331 

kept  my  best  bits  of  food  for  him,  he  knew  me, 
used  to  come  and  meet  me  at  night,  wasn't  ashamed 
of  my  poverty,  but  used  to  jump  upon  me  and  lick 
my  feet;  indeed,  there  was  something  so  loving  and 
grateful  in  his  eyes  that  I  often  wept  when  I  looked 
at  him. 

"  '  And  yet  he's  the  only  creature  that  really 
cares  for  me!'  I  would  say. 

**  In  winter  he  slept  at  my  feet.  It  hurt  me  so  to 
see  him  beaten  that  I  had  broken  him  of  going  into 
houses  to  steal  bones,  and  he  was  satisfied  with  my 
bread.  If  I  was  sad,  he  would  plant  himself  in  front 
of  me  and  look  into  my  eyes,  as  much  as  to  say: 

"  '  Are  you  very  unhappy,  my  poor  Fosseuse.-" 

"  When  people  tossed  sous  to  me,  he  would  pick 
them  out  of  the  dust  and  bring  them  to  me,  the  dear 
brute.  While  I  had  that  friend,  I  was  less  unhappy. 
I  put  by  a  few  sous  every  day  to  try  and  raise  fifty 
francs  to  buy  him  of  Pere  Manseau.  One  day  his 
wife,  seeing  that  the  dog  was  fond  of  me,  took  it 
into  her  head  to  fall  in  love  with  him.  Mind  you, 
the  dog  couldn't  endure  her.  Those  creatures  have 
a  keen  scent  for  hearts!  they  can  tell  at  once  when 
anyone  really  likes  them.  I  had  a  twenty -franc 
gold  piece  sewn  in  the  binding  of  my  skirt;  so  I  said 
to  Monsieur  Manseau: 

"  'My  dear  monsieur,  I  meant  to  offer  you  my 
year's  savings  for  your  dog;  but  sell  him  to  me  for 
twenty  francs  before  your  wife  says  she  wants  him 
for  herself,  although  she  doesn't  really  care  for  him; 
see,  here's  the  money.* 


332  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  *  No,  no,  my  love,'  he  said,  'put  away  your 
twenty  francs.  Heaven  forbid  tiiat  I  should  take 
a  poor  girl's  money!  Keep  the  dog.  If  my  wife 
raises  an  outcry,  go  away.' 

"  His  wife  made  him  a  scene  about  the  dog. 
Great  God!  you'd  have  supposed  the  house  was  on 
fire!  And  you  could  never  guess  what  she  thought 
of  doing?  When  she  found  that  the  dog  had  been 
given  to  me  from  friendship,  that  she  couldn't  have 
him,  she  had  him  poisoned.  My  poor  puppy  died  in 
my  arms.  I  wept  as  if  he  were  my  own  child,  and 
buried  him  under  a  fir-tree.  You  don't  know  all 
that  I  put  in  that  grave!  I  said  to  myself,  as 
I  sat  there,  that  I  was  always  to  be  alone  in  the 
world,  that  nothing  would  succeed  with  me,  that 
I  was  going  back  where  I  was  before,  without  any- 
body in  the  world  to  care  for  me,  and  that  I  should 
never  again  see  a  friendly  expression  in  any  eye. 
I  stayed  there  all  one  night,  in  the  open  air,  praying 
God  to  have  pity  on  me.  When  I  went  back  to  the 
road,  I  saw  a  little  poor  boy  ten  years  old  without 
any  hands. 

"  *  The  good  Lord  has  granted  my  prayer,'  I 
thought. — I  had  never  prayed  to  Him  as  I  did  that 
night. — '  I  will  take  care  of  this  poor  little  fellow,  we 
will  beg  together,  and  I  will  be  his  mother;  two  of  us 
together  ought  to  succeed  better;  I  shall  have  more 
courage  for  him  than  I  have  for  myself!' 

"At  first  the  little  fellow  seemed  contented;  he 
would  have  been  very  fastidious  not  to  be,  for  I  did 
whatever  he  wanted,  I  gave  him  the  best  I  had;  in 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  333 

short,  I  was  his  slave,  and  he  tyrannized  over  me; 
but  still  I  liked  it  better  than  being  alone.  But 
as  soon  as  the  little  toper  found  out  that  I  had  twenty 
francs  sewn  in  my  dress,  he  ripped  the  seam  and 
stole  my  gold  piece,  the  price  of  my  poor  dog! 
I  meant  to  pay  for  masses  with  it.  A  child  without 
hands!  it  makes  one  shudder.  That  theft  disgusted  me 
with  life.  It  seemed  that  I  could  love  nothing  that 
it  didn't  die  in  my  hands!  One  day  I  saw  a  pretty 
French  caliche  coming  up  the  hill  of  Les  Echelles. 
There  was  a  young  lady  inside  as  lovely  as  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  a  young  man  who  looked  like  her. 

"'See  what  a  pretty  girl!'  the  young  man  said 
to  her,  as  he  tossed  me  a  piece  of  money. 

**  Only  you.  Monsieur  Benassis,  can  understand 
the  joy  that  compliment,  the  only  one  I  ever  heard, 
caused  me;  but  the  gentleman  ought  not  to  have 
thrown  me  money.  Instantly,  impelled  by  a  thousand 
I  don't  know  what  that  tormented  my  brain,  I  began 
to  run  through  paths  that  made  a  short  cut  to  the 
cliffs  of  Les  Echelles,  and  I  got  there  ahead  of  the 
caliche,  which  came  up  the  hill  very  slowly.  So  I 
was  able  to  see  the  young  man  again;  he  was 
greatly  surprised  to  see  me,  and  I  was  so  happy 
that  my  heart  beat  in  my  throat;  a  sort  of  instinct 
drew  me  to  him.  When  he  recognized  me,  I  kept 
on  my  way,  suspecting  that  he  and  the  young  lady 
would  stop  to  see  the  cascade  of  Couz;  when  they 
came  down,  they  saw  me  once  more  under  the 
walnut-trees  by  the  roadside;  thereupon  they  ques- 
tioned me,  seeming  to  be  interested  in  me.     Never 


334  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

in  my  life  iiave  1  heard  sweeter  voices  than  those  of 
that  handsome  young  man  and  his  sister,  for  she 
surely  was  his  sister;  I  thought  of  them  for  a  year, 
hoping  always  that  they  would  come  again.  1 
would  have  given  two  years  of  my  life  just  to  see 
that  traveller  once  more,  he  seemed  such  a  sweet 
man!  Those  are  the  important  events  of  my  life, 
down  to  the  day  I  first  knew  Monsieur  Benassis; 
for,  when  my  mistress  discharged  me  for  putting  on 
her  miserable  ball-dress,  I  pitied  her  and  forgave 
her;  and,  on  the  word  of  an  honest  girl,  if  you  will 
allow  me  to  speak  frankly,  I  thought  that  I  was 
a  better  woman  than  she,  although  she  was  a 
countess." 

"Well,"  said  Genestas,  after  a  moment's  silence, 
**you  see  that  God  has  taken  a  liking  to  you;  you 
are  like  a  fish  in  water  here." 

At  those  words  La  Fosseuse  looked  at  Benassis 
with  eyes  overflowing  with  gratitude. 

"  I  would  like  to  be  rich!"  said  the  officer. 

That  exclamation  was  followed  by  a  profound 
silence. 

**  You  owe  me  a  story,"  said  La  Fosseuse,  at  last, 
in  her  coaxing  voice. 

"  I  will  tell  you  one,"  said  Genestas. — "  The  day 
before  the  battle  of  Friedland,"  he  continued,  after 
a  pause,  "  I  had  been  sent  with  a  message  to  Gen- 
eral Davoust's  quarters,  and  was  returning  to  my 
camp  when,  at  a  bend  in  the  road,  I  found  myself 
face  to  face  with  the  Emperor.  Napoleon  looked 
at  me: 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  335 

**  *  You  are  Captain  Genestas?'  he  said. 

'"Yes,  Sire.' 

"  '  You  have  been  in  Egypt?' 

"'Yes,  Sire.' 

"  '  Don't  go  any  farther  on  this  road,'  he  said, 
*turn  to  the  left,  you  will  reach  your  division 
sooner.' 

"You  cannot  imagine  the  kindly  tone  in  which 
the  Emperor  said  those  words,  although  he  had  so 
many  things  on  his  mind,  for  he  was  riding  over  the 
country  to  become  acquainted  with  his  battlefield.  I 
tell  you  this  so  that  you  may  see  what  a  memory  he 
had  and  that  I  was  one  of  those  whose  faces  were 
known  to  him.  In  181 5  I  took  the  oath.  Except 
for  that  false  step,  I  might,  perhaps,  be  a  colonel  to- 
day; but  1  never  intended  to  betray  the  Bourbons; 
in  those  days  I  saw  nothing  more  than  that  France 
must  be  defended.  I  found  myself  a  major  in  the 
grenadiers  of  the  Garde  Imperiale,  and,  in  spite  of 
the  pain  I  still  felt  from  my  wound,  1  did  my  share 
in  the  mSlee  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  When  it 
was  all  over,  I  went  with  Napoleon  to  Paris;  then, 
when  he  started  for  Rochefort,  I  followed  him  not- 
withstanding his  orders;  I  was  very  glad  of  an  op- 
portunity to  see  that  nothing  happened  to  him  on  the 
road.  And  so,  when  he  went  out  to  walk  on  the 
shore,  he  found  me  on  guard  within  ten  paces  of 
him. 

'"Well,  Genestas,'  he  said,  walking  up  to  me, 
*so  we're  not  dead?' 

"  Those  words  broke  my  heart.    If  you  had  heard 


336  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

him,  you  would  have  shuddered  as  I  did,  from  head 
to  foot.  He  pointed  to  the  villainous  English  war- 
ship that  was  blockading  the  harbor,  and  said: 

"  '  When  I  look  at  that,  I  regret  that  I  did  not 
drown  myself  in  the  blood  of  my  guard.' 

"  Yes,"  added  Genestas,  looking  at  the  doctor  and 
La  Fosseuse,  "  those  were  his  very  words. 

**  *  The  marshals  who  prevented  you  from  charg- 
ing in  person,'  I  said  to  him,  'and  who  put  you  in 
your  carriage,  were  no  friends  of  yours.' 

"'Come  with  me!'  he  cried,  eagerly,  'the  game 
is  not  ended.' 

"  '  Sire,  I  will  gladly  come  and  join  you;  but  just 
at  present  I  have  a  motherless  child  on  my  hands 
and  I  am  not  free.' 

"Adrien  here  prevented  me  from  going  to  Saint 
Helena. 

"  'Stay,'  he  said,  'I  have  never  given  you  any- 
thing, you  were  not  one  of  those  who  always  had 
one  hand  full  and  the  other  open;  here  is  the  snuff- 
box I  used  during  the  last  campaign.  Remain  in 
France,  we  need  gallant  fellows  here,  after  all!  Stay 
in  the  service,  remember  me.  You  are  the  last  man 
of  my  Egyptian  army  whom  I  shall  have  seen  alive 
in  France.' 

"  He  gave  me  a  little  snuff-box. 

"  *  Have  the  words  Honor  and  Fatherland  engraved 
on  it,'  he  said;  'they  tell  the  story  of  our  last  two 
campaigns.' 

"  Then  the  members  of  his  suite  joined  him,  and  I 
remained  with  them  all  the  morning.     The  Emperor 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  337 

went  hither  and  thither  along  the  shore.  He  was 
still  calm,  but  knitted  his  brow  occasionally.  At  noon 
his  embarkation  was  deemed  to  be  altogether  impos- 
sible. The  English  knew  that  he  was  at  Rochefort, 
he  must  either  put  himself  in  their  hands  or  pass 
through  France  again.  We  were  all  restless!  The 
minutes  were  like  hours.  Napoleon  was  between 
the  Bourbons,  who  would  have  shot  him,  and  the 
English,  who  are  not  an  honorable  nation,  for  they 
can  never  purge  themselves  of  the  shame  with  which 
they  covered  themselves  when  they  cast  on  a  lonely 
rock  an  enemy  who  sought  hospitality  at  their  hands. 
During  that  anxious  time  some  one  in  his  suite, 
I  don't  know  who,  introduced  one  Lieutenant 
Doret,  a  sailor  who  came  to  suggest  to  him  a 
method  of  crossing  to  America:  There  was  a  brig 
of  war  in  the  harbor  at  the  time,  and  a  merchant 
vessel. 

"'Captain,'  said  the  Emperor,  'what  is  your 
plan.?' 

"  '  Sire,'  was  the  reply,  *  you  will  be  on  the  mer- 
chant vessel,  I  will  man  the  brig  with  devoted  men 
under  the  white  flag,  we  will  board  the  Englishman, 
we  will  set  him  on  fire  and  blow  him  up,  then  you 
can  pass.' 

"  '  We  will  go  with  you!'  I  cried  to  the  captain. 
"  Napoleon  looked  at  us  all  and  said: 
"  '  Captain  Doret,  remain  in  France.' 
"  That  was  the  only  time  I  ever  saw  Napoleon 
moved.     He  waved  his  hand  to  us  and  returned  to 
the  house.     I  left  when  I  saw  him  get  aboard  the 
22 


338 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 


English  ship.  He  was  lost,  and  he  knew  it.  There 
was  a  traitor  in  the  harbor  who  notified  the  enemy 
of  the  Emperor's  presence  there  by  signals.  There- 
upon Napoleon  tried  one  last  means:  he  did  as  he 
used  to  do  on  the  battlefield,  he  went  to  them  instead 
of  waiting  for  them  to  come  to  him.  You  talk  about 
grief,  why,  words  cannot  describe  the  despair  of 
those  who  loved  him  for  himself." 

"  Where  is  his  snuff-box?"  asked  La  Fosseuse. 

"It  is  at  Grenoble,  in  a  box,"  replied  the  com- 
mandant. 

**  I  will  go  and  look  at  it  if  you  will  allow  me. 
To  think  that  you  have  something  he  once  held  in 
hi§  fingers!     Had  he  a  handsome  hand?" 
I  "Very." 
I  "Is  it  true  that  he  is  dead?     Come,  tell  me  the 

TUth." 

"Yes,  certainly  he  is  dead,  my  poor  child." 

"  I  was  so  young  in  1815  that  I  never  could  see 
nything  but  his  hat,  but  I  came  near  being  crushed 
to, death  at  Grenoble." 

^  "  This  is  extremely  good  coffee,"  said  Genestas. — 
"Well,  Adrien,  do  you  like  this  region?  Will  you 
come  and  see  mademoiselle?" 

The  boy  did  not  reply;  he  seemed  to  be  afraid  to 
look  at  La  Fosseuse.  Benassis  hardly  removed  his 
eyes  from  the  child,  whose  very  soul  he  seemed  to 
be  reading. 

"Certainly  he  will  come  and  see  her,"  he  said. 
"  But  let  us  go  to  the  house;  I  must  get  one  of  my 
horses,  as  I  have  a  long  ride  to  take.     While  I  am 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  339 

away,  you  can  be  getting  acquainted  with  Jac- 
quotte." 

"  Pray  come  with  us,"  said  Genestas  to  La 
Fosseuse. 

"  Willingly,"  she  replied,  "  I  have  several  things 
to  take  back  to  Madame  Jacquotte." 

They  started  for  the  doctor's  house,  and  La 
Fosseuse,  whom  their  company  made  very  cheerful, 
led  them  by  narrow  paths  through  the  wildest  parts 
of  the  mountain. 

"  Monsieur  I'officier,"  she  said,  after  a  brief  silence, 
**  you  have  told  me  nothing  about  yourself,  and  I 
should  have  liked  to  hear  you  tell  some  war  story. 
I  like  what  you  said  of  Napoleon,  but  it  makes  me 
feel  bad.     If  you  were  very  obliging — " 

"She  is  right,"  said  Benassis,  gently,  "you 
ought  to  tell  us  some  interesting  story  as  we  walk. 
Come,  give  us  something  like  the  story  of  your 
beam,  at  the  Beresina." 

"  I  have  very  few  reminiscences,"  said  Genestas. 
"  You  sometimes  meet  people  to  whom  all  sorts  of 
things  happen,  but  I  have  never  been  the  hero  of 
any  adventure.  This  is  the  only  amusing  thing  that 
ever  happened  to  me.  In  1805  I  was  only  a  sub- 
lieutenant, I  belonged  to  the  Grande  Armee  and  I 
found  myself  at  Austerlitz.  Before  taking  Ulm,  we 
had  to  fight  several  skirmishes  in  which  the  cavalry 
distinguished  itself  greatly.  I  was  then  in  Murat's 
command,  who  rarely  declined  to  play  trumps. 
After  one  of  the  first  affairs  of  the  campaign,  we 
took  possession  of  a  district  in  which  there  were 


340  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

several  fine  estates.  At  night  my  regiment  camped 
in  the  park  belonging  to  a  splendid  chateau  occupied 
by  a  young  and  pretty  woman,  a  countess;  I  natu- 
rally proposed  to  take  up  my  quarters  under  her 
roof,  and  1  hurried  thither  to  prevent  anything 
like  pillage.  I  reached  the  salon  just  as  my  quar- 
termaster was  taking  aim  at  the  countess  and 
brutally  demanding  from  her  what  such  a  woman 
certainly  could  not  give  him,  he  was  too  ugly!  1 
struck  up  his  carbine  with  my  sword,  the  bullet 
shattered  a  mirror;  then  I  gave  my  man  a  back- 
handed blow  and  stretched  him  on  the  floor.  All 
the  countess's  people  came  running  in  when  they 
heard  her  shrieks  and  the  report,  and  they  began 
to  threaten  me. 

"  *  Stop,'  she  said  to  them  in  German  as  they 
were  about  to  run  me  through,  *  that  officer  saved 
my  life!* 

"They  retired.  The  lady  gave  me  her  handker- 
chief, a  beautiful  embroidered  handkerchief  which  I 
still  have,  and  told  me  that  I  could  always  find 
shelter  under  her  roof,  and  that,  if  I  ever  had  any 
sorrow,  of  whatever  nature  it  might  be,  she  would 
be  a  sister  and  a  devoted  friend  to  me;  in  short,  she 
flattered  me  in  every  possible  way.  That  woman 
was  as  lovely  as  a  wedding-day,  as  winning  as  a 
kitten.  We  dined  together.  The  next  day  I  was 
madly  in  love;  but  on  the  next  day  after  that  we 
had  to  be  in  line  at  Guntzbourg,  I  believe  it  was, 
and  I  broke  camp,  armed  with  my  handkerchief. 

"  The  battle  began;  I  said  to  myself: 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  341 

***  This  way,  bullets!  Great  God,  is  there  not 
one  for  me  among  all  that  are  flying  about?' 

"But  I  didn't  want  one  in  the  thigh,  for  then  I 
couldn't  have  returned  to  the  chateau.  I  was  not 
disgusted  with  life,  I  simply  wanted  a  smart  wound  in 
the  arm  so  that  I  could  be  cared  for  and  coddled  by 
the  princess.  I  rushed  at  the  enemy  like  a  maniac. 
But  I  had  no  luck,  I  came  out  safe  and  sound.  No 
more  countess  for  me,  I  had  to  march. — There — " 

They  had  reached  the  doctor's  house,  and  he  at 
once  mounted  and  rode  away.  When  the  doctor  re- 
turned, the  cook,  to  whom  Genestas  had  commended 
his  son,  had  already  taken  possession  of  Adrien,  and 
had  installed  him  in  Monsieur  Gravier's  famous 
apartment.  She  was  vastly  surprised  when  her 
master  ordered  a  simple  cot-bed  to  be  prepared  for 
the  young  man  in  his  own  room,  and  gave  the  order 
in  such  a  peremptory  tone  that  it  was  impossible  for 
Jacquotte  to  make  the  slightest  observation.  After 
dinner  the  commandant  started  for  Grenoble,  happy 
in  Benassis's  renewed  assurances  of  the  child's 
speedy  restoration  to  health. 

Early  in  December,  eight  months  after  he  had 
placed  his  son  in  the  doctor's  charge,  Genestas  was 
commissioned  lieutenant-colonel  in  a  regiment  in 
garrison  at  Poitiers.  He  was  thinking  of  writing  to 
inform  Benassis  of  his  departure,  when  he  received 
a  letter  from  him  announcing  Adrien's  restoration  to 
perfect  health. 

"  The  child,"  he  said,  "  has  grown  tall  and  strong,  and  is 
wonderfully  well.     Since  you  last  saw  him  he  has  turned 


342  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

Butifer's  lessons  to  such  good  advantage,  that  he's  as  fine  a 
shot  as  our  smuggler  himself ;  he  is  quick  of  movement  and 
active  too,  a  good  walker,  and  a  good  rider.  He  has  changed 
in  every  respect.  The  boy  of  sixteen,  who  used  to  look  as  if 
he  were  twelve,  now  seems  to  be  twenty.  He  has  a  self- 
assured,  fearless  expression.  He  is  a  man,  and  a  man  con- 
cerning whose  future  you  ought  now  to  reflect." 

"  I  will  certainly  go  and  see  Benassis  to-morrow, 
and  I  will  get  his  opinion  as  to  the  profession  1 
ought  to  have  that  youngster  adopt,"  said  Genestas 
to  himself,  as  he  went  to  attend  the  farewell  banquet 
given  him  by  his  officers,  for  he  was  to  remain  at 
Grenoble  only  a  few  days. 

When  the  lieutenant-colonel  returned  to  his  quar- 
ters, his  servant  handed  him  a  letter  brought  by  a 
messenger  who  had  been  waiting  a  long  while  for 
the  reply.  Although  considerably  dazed  by  the 
toasts  the  officers  had  drunk  to  him,  Genestas 
recognized  his  son's  handwriting,  supposed  that  he 
had  written  to  ask  him  for  the  means  of  gratifying 
some  youthful  whim,  and  left  it  lying  on  the  table, 
where  he  found  it  the  next  morning  when  the 
fumes  of  champagne  had  disappeared. 

"My  Dear  Father—" 

"Ah!  you  little  rascal,"  he  said  to  himself,  **you 
never  fail  to  wheedle  me  when  you  want  some- 
thing!" 

With  that  he  looked  at  the  letter  again  and  read 
these  words: 

"  The  good  Monsieur  Benassis  is  dead — " 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  343 

The  letter  fell  from  Genestas's  hands,  and  he 
read  no  more  for  a  long  while. 

"  The  sad  event  has  caused  consternation  throughout  the 
country,  and  surprised  us  all  the  more  because  he  seemed  to 
be  perfectly  well  the  day  before,  without  the  slightest  indica- 
tion of  any  sort  of  trouble.  The  day  before  yesterday,  he  went 
to  see  all  his  patients,  even  those  who  live  farthest  away, 
as  if  he  knew  that  his  end  was  near;  he  said  to  everybody  he 
met: 

"'  Adieu,  my  friend.' 

"  He  came  home,  as  usual,  to  dine  with  me,  about  five 
o'clock.  Jacquotte  thought  his  face  looked  a  little  flushed 
and  purplish;  as  it  was  cold,  she  did  not  give  him  a  foot-bath, 
which  she  always  used  to  make  him  take  when  she  saw  that 
the  blood  had  gone  to  his  head.  So  the  poor  girl  has  been 
crying  through  her  tears  for  two  days: 

"  *  If  I  had  given  him  a  foot-bath,  he  would  be  alive  this 
minute!' 

"  Monsieur  Benassis  was  hungry,  he  ate  a  good  deal  and 
was  more  lively  than  usual.  We  laughed  a  lot  together, 
and  I  had  never  seen  him  in  a  laughing  mood.  After  dinner, 
about  seven  o'clock,  a  man  came  from  Saint-Laurent-du-Pont 
to  call  him  to  a  very  urgent  case.     He  said  to  me: 

" '  I  must  go;  but  my  dinner  hasn't  digested  yet,  and  I  don't 
like  to  ride  in  that  condition,  especially  in  cold  weather;  it's 
enough  to  kill  a  man!' 

"  However,  he  started.  About  nine  o'clock,  Goguelat,  the 
letter-carrier,  brought  a  letter  for  Monsieur  Benassis.  Jacquotte 
was  tired  through  doing  her  washing,  so  she  went  to  bed, 
giving  me  the  letter  and  asking  me  to  make  the  tea  over 
the  fire  in  our  room,  for  I  still  sleep  in  my  little  corded  bed 
beside  his.  I  put  out  the  fire  in  the  salon,  and  went  up- 
stairs to  wait  for  my  dear  friend.  Before  I  put  the  letter  on 
the  mantel,  curiosity  led  me  to  glance  at  the  stamp  and  the 
handwriting.    The  letter  came  from  Paris,  and  it  looked  to 


344  THE  COUNfTRY  DOCTOR 

me  as  if  it  were  written  by  a  woman.  I  mention  this  be- 
cause of  tlie  influence  that  letter  had  on  the  result  About 
ten  o'clock  I  heard  the  horse's  steps,  and  Monsieur  Benassis 
saying  to  Nicolle: 

"  *  It's  terribly  cold,  and  I  don't  feel  very  well.' 

" '  Do  you  want  me  to  wake  Jacquotte?'  Nicolle  asked  him. 

" '  No,  no!' 

"And  he  came  upstairs. 

*' '  I  have  made  your  tea  for  you,'  I  said. 

"  *  Thanks,  Adrien,'  he  replied,  with  the  smile  you  know  so 
well. 

"  That  was  his  last  smile.  I  saw  him  take  off  his  cravat 
as  if  he  were  choking. 

"  *  It's  very  hot  here!'  he  said. 

"  Then  he  threw  himself  into  an  easy-chair. 

"  'A  letter  came  for  you,  my  dear  friend,  here  it  is,'  I  said. 

"  He  took  the  letter,  looked  at  the  handwriting,  and  cried: 

"  'Ah!  my  God,  perhaps  she  is  free!' 

"  Then  he  threw  his  head  back,  and  his  hands  shook;  at 
last  he  put  a  light  on  the  table  and  broke  the  seal  of  the  letter. 
The  tone  in  which  he  made  the  exclamation  was  so  terrifying 
to  me  that  I  watched  him  while  he  was  reading,  and  I  saw  him 
turn  red  and  weep.  Then  he  suddenly  fell  head  foremost  to 
the  floor;  I  picked  him  up,  and  saw  that  his  face  was  all  a  dark 
purple. 

*"  I  am  dead!'  he  stammered,  making  a  violent  effort  to 
stand  up.  *  Bleed,  bleed  me!'  he  cried,  seizing  my  hand. 
'Adrien,  burn  this  letter!' 

"  He  handed  me  the  letter,  and  I  threw  it  in  the  fire.  I  called 
Jacquotte  and  Nicolle,  but  only  Nicolle  heard  me;  he  came  up 
and  helped  me  lay  Monsieur  Benassis  on  my  little  cot.  My 
dear  friend  could  no  longer  understand!  He  opened  his  eyes 
after  that,  but  he  saw  nothing.  Nicolle  rode  off  to  call  Mon- 
sieur Bordier,  the  surgeon,  and  spread  the  alarm  through  the 
village.  In  a  moment  the  whole  place  was  on  foot.  Monsieur 
Janvier,  Monsieur  Dufau,  and  the  others  whom  you  know, 
were  the  first  to  come.     Monsieur  Benassis  was  almost  dead, 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  345 

there  was  nothing  to  be  done.  Monsieur  Bordier  burned  the 
soles  of  his  feet,  but  could  not  obtain  a  sign  of  life.  It  was  a 
combination  of  gout  and  the  rushing  of  the  blood  to  the 
brain.  I  give  you  all  these  details  faithfully,  my  dear  father, 
because  I  know  how  fond  you  are  of  Monsieur  Benassis. 
As  for  myself,  I  am  very  sad  and  depressed.  I  can  tell  you, 
that,  except  you,  I  never  loved  anyone  better.  I  gained  more 
by  talking  one  evening  with  dear  Monsieur  Benassis  than  by 
learning  all  the  things  taught  at  school.  When  his  death  was 
known  throughout  the  village  the  next  morning,  there  was  an 
extraordinary  sight.  The  courtyard  and  garden  were  filled 
with  people.  They  wept  and  cried  aloud!  in  fact,  no  one  did 
any  work  that  day;  they  all  told  what  Monsieur  Benassis  said 
the  last  time  he  spoke  to  them;  one  dilated  upon  all  the  good 
he  had  done  him;  those  who  were  least  affected  spoke  for  the 
others;  the  crowd  increased  from  hour  to  hour,  and  everybody 
wanted  to  see  him. 

"  The  sad  news  spread  rapidly,  people  all  over  the  canton 
and  even  in  the  adjoining  cantons  had  the  same  idea,  and 
men,  women,  boys,  and  girls  thronged  to  the  village  from  ten 
leagues  around.  When  the  funeral  procession  had  formed, 
the  casket  was  carried  into  the  church  by  the  four  oldest  men 
in  tiie  commune,  but  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  for  there 
were  nearly  five  thousand  people  between  Monsieur  Benassis's 
house  and  the  church,  most  of  them  kneeling  as  at  the  pro- 
cession of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  church  was  not  large  enough 
to  hold  everybody.  When  the  service  began,  there  was  such 
a  profound  silence,  notwithstanding  the  weeping,  that  you 
could  hear  the  little  bell  and  the  chants  at  the  end  of  the  main 
street.  But  when  the  time  came  to  carry  the  body  to  the  new 
cemetery  that  Monsieur  Benassis  presented  to  the  village, 
hardly  suspecting,  poor  man,  that  he  would  be  the  first  one 
buried  there,  then  there  was  a  great  outcry.  Monsieur  Janvier 
wept  as  he  recited  the  prayers,  and  there  were  tears  in  every- 
body's eyes.  At  last  he  was  buried.  By  evening  the  crowd  had 
dispersed  and  everyone  had  gone  home,  sowing  mourning  and 
tears  throughout  the  country.    The  next  morning,  Gondrin, 


346  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

Goguelat,  Butifer,  the  forest-keeper,  and  several  others  set 
about  raising  a  pyramid  of  earth  twenty  feet  high  on  the 
spot  where  Monsieur  Benassis  lies,  which  they  are  sodding 
and  in  which  everybody  is  taking  a  hand. 

"  Such,  my  dear  father,  are  the  events  that  have  taken  place 
here  in  three  days.  Monsieur  Benassis's  will  was  found  by 
Monsieur  Dufau,  lying  open  on  his  table.  The  disposition  our 
dear  friend  makes  of  his  property  has  increased,  if  that  is 
possible,  the  universal  affection  for  him  and  the  regret  caused 
by  his  death.  Now,  my  dear  father,  I  expect  to  receive  through 
Butifer,  who  will  bring  you  this  letter,  a  reply  to  guide  my 
conduct.  Will  you  come  to  get  me,  or  shall  I  go  and  join 
you  at  Grenoble.''  Tell  me  what  you  want  me  to  do,  and  be 
sure  of  my  absolute  obedience. 

"Adieu,  father,  I  send  you  a  thousand  loving  wishes. 
"  Your  affectionate  son, 

"ADRIEN  GENESTAS." 

**  I  must  go  there  at  once!"  cried  the  soldier. 

He  ordered  his  horse  saddled,  and  started  on  his 
journey  on  one  of  those  December  mornings  when 
the  sky  is  covered  with  a  veil  of  gray,  when  the 
wind  is  not  strong  enough  to  drive  away  the  mist 
through  which  the  leafless  trees  and  the  damp  houses 
no  longer  wear  their  usual  aspect.  The  silence  was 
dull — there  are  brilliant  silences.  In  fine  weather 
the  slightest  sound  has  a  touch  of  cheerfulness;  but 
in  gloomy  weather  nature  is  not  silent,  it  is  dumb. 
The  fog,  clinging  to  the  trees,  condensed  in  drops 
which  fell  slowly  on  the  leaves,  like  tears.  Every 
noise  died  in  the  dead  atmosphere.  Colonel  Ge- 
nestas,  whose  heart  was  oppressed  by  thoughts  of 
death  and  by  profound  regrets,  sympathized  with 
the  melancholy  mood  of  nature.     He  involuntarily 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  347 

compared  the  lovely  spring  sky  and  the  valley  in  its 
bright  and  joyous  garb  as  he  had  seen  it  on  his  first 
visit,  with  the  now  melancholy  aspect  of  a  leaden  sky, 
the  mountains  stripped  of  their  robes  of  green  and 
not  yet  clothed  in  their  robes  of  snow,  which  pro- 
duce an  effect  not  lacking  in  charm.  Bare  ground  is 
a  painful  sight  to  a  man  who  is  walking  toward  a 
tomb;  to  him  that  tomb  seems  to  be  everywhere. 
The  black  firs  that  embellished  the  mountain-tops 
here  and  there  added  fresh  images  of  mourning  to 
all  those  that  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  officer's 
mind;  and  so,  whenever  his  glance  embraced  the 
whole  valley  from  end  to  end,  he  could  not  divert 
his  thoughts  from  the  misfortune  that  had  befallen 
the  canton,  and  from  the  void  produced  by  the  death 
of  one  man.  Genestas  soon  reached  the  spot  where, 
on  his  first  visit,  he  had  taken  a  cup  of  milk.  When 
he  saw  the  smoke  of  the  cottage  where  the  children 
from  the  hospice  were  brought  up,  he  thought  more 
particularly  of  Benassis's  benevolent  spirit,  and  de- 
termined to  go  in  and  give  the  poor  woman  some- 
thing in  his  name.  Having  fastened  his  horse  to  a 
tree,  he  opened  the  door  without  knocking. 

"Good-day,  mother,"  he  said  to  the  old  woman, 
whom  he  found  in  the  chimney-corner  with  all  her 
children  squatting  round  her;  "do  you  recognize 
me.?" 

"  Oh!  yes,  indeed,  my  dear  monsieur.  You  came 
here  one  fine  spring  day  and  gave  me  two  crowns." 

"  Here,  mother,  this  is  for  you  and  the  chil- 
dren." 


348  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

"  I  thank  you,  kind  sir.  May  Heaven  bless  you!" 

"  Do  not  thank  me,  you  owe  this  money  to  poor 
P^re  Benassis." 

The  old  woman  raised  her  head  and  looked  at 
Genestas. 

"Ah!  monsieur,  although  he  has  left  all  his  prop- 
erty to  our  poor  canton,  and  we  are  all  his  heirs,  we 
have  lost  our  greatest  treasure,  for  he  made  every- 
thing come  to  some  good  here." 

"Adieu,  mother;  pray  for  him!"  said  Genestas, 
tapping  the  children  lightly  with  his  hunting-crop. 

Then,  attended  by  the  whole  little  family  and  the 
old  woman,  he  remounted  his  horse  and  rode  away. 
As  he  followed  the  road  through  the  valley,  he 
noticed  the  broad  path  leading  to  La  Fosseuse's 
house.  When  he  reached  the  ridge  from  which  he 
could  see  the  house,  he  discovered,  not  without 
great  uneasiness,  that  the  doors  and  shutters  were 
closed;  he  returned  to  the  high-road,  lined  by  poplars 
which  had  lost  all  their  leaves.  As  he  came  out  on 
the  road,  he  saw  the  old  ploughman,  almost  in  his 
best  clothes,  walking  slowly  along,  all  alone  and 
without  his  tools. 

"Good-morning,  Goodman  Moreau." 

"Ah!  good-morning,  monsieur — I  place  you," 
added  the  goodman,  after  a  moment's  silence.  "  You 
are  a  friend  of  our  late  mayor!  Ah!  monsieur, 
wouldn't  it  have  been  better  for  the  good  Lord  to 
take  a  poor  old  sciatic  like  me  instead  of  him.?  I  am 
of  no  consequence  here,  while  he  was  everybody's 
joy." 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  349 

"  Do  you  know  why  there  is  nobody  at  La 
Fosseuse's?" 

The  goodman  looked  up  at  the  sky. 

"What  time  is  it,  monsieur?  1  can't  see  the 
sun." 

"  Ten  o'clock." 

"  Oh!  well,  she's  at  mass  or  else  at  the  cemetery. 
She  goes  there  every  day;  she  inherits  an  annuity 
of  five  hundred  francs  and  has  her  house  during 
her  life;  but  she  is  half-crazed  on  account  of  his 
death.'* 

"  Where  are  you  going,  goodman?" 

"To  the  funeral  of  that  poor  little  Jacques,  who 
was  my  nephew.  The  sickly  little  fellow  died  yes- 
terday morning.  On  my  word,  it  seemed  as  if  it 
was  dear  Monsieur  Benassis  that  kept  him  alive. 
All  these  youngsters  are  dying!"  added  Moreau,  in 
a  half-complaining,  half-jeering  tone. 

At  the  entrance  to  the  village  Genestas  stopped 
his  horse  as  he  caught  sight  of  Gondrin  and  Gogue- 
lat,  both  armed  with  spades  and  pickaxes. 

"  Well,  my  old  troopers,"  he  called  to  them,  "  so 
we  have  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  him!" 

"Enough,  enough,  captain!"  rejoined  Goguelat, 
gruffly;  "we  know  it  well  enough,  we  have  been 
digging  sods  for  the  tomb." 

"Will  it  not  be  a  noble  life  to  tell  about?"  said 
Genestas. 

"Yes,"  replied  Goguelat;  "except  for  the  fight- 
ing, he  was  the  Napoleon  of  our  valley." 

On  reaching  the  vicarage,  Genestas  saw  Butifer 


350  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

and  Adrien  at  the  door,  talking  with  Monsieur  Jan- 
vier, who  had  evidently  just  returned  from  say- 
ing mass.  Butifer,  seeing  the  officer  prepare  to 
dismount,  went  at  once  to  hold  his  horse,  while 
Adrien  threw  his  arms  about  his  father's  neck. 
Genestas  was  deeply  moved  by  that  outburst  of 
affection;  but  he  concealed  his  feelings,  and  said 
to  him: 

"So  you  are  all  made  over,  Adrien!  Tudieu! 
thanks  to  our  poor  friend,  you  have  grown  to  be 
almost  a  man!  I  shall  not  forget  Master  Butifer, 
your  instructor." 

"  Oh!  colonel,"  said  Butifer,  '^take  me  into  your 
regiment!  Since  monsieur  le  maire  died,  1  have 
been  afraid  of  myself.  Didn't  he  want  me  to  be  a 
soldier?  Very  well,  I'll  do  as  he  wanted  me  to. 
He  told  you  who  I  was,  you  will  be  indulgent 
to  me—" 

"  Agreed,  my  fine  fellow,"  said  Genestas,  grasp- 
ing his  hand.  "  Never  fear,  I  will  find  some  good 
place  for  you. — Well,  monsieur  le  cure.?" 

"  Monsieur  le  colonel,  1  am  as  deeply  grieved  as 
all  the  people  in  the  canton,  but  1  feel  more  keenly 
than  they  the  irreparable  loss  we  have  sustained. 
That  man  was  an  angel!  Luckily,  he  died  without 
suffering.  God  released  with  a  kindly  hand  the 
bonds  of  a  life  that  was  a  constant  benefaction 
to  us." 

"  May  I,  without  presumption,  ask  you  to  go  with 
me  to  the  cemetery.?  I  should  like  to  bid  a  sort  of 
adieu  to  him." 


THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  35 1 

Butifer  and  Adrien  followed  Genestas  and  the 
cure,  who  walked  a  few  steps  in  advance,  talk- 
ing together.  When  they  had  passed  through  the 
village,  and  were  approaching  the  little  lake,  the 
lieutenant-colonel  spied,  on  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain, a  large  rocky  tract  of  land,  surrounded  by 
walls. 

"  That  is  the  cemetery,"  said  the  cure.  "  Three 
months  before  he  was  brought  here  he  first  called 
attention  to  the  disadvantages  resulting  from  the 
proximity  of  cemeteries  to  churches;  and,  in  order 
to  carry  out  the  law  which  requires  them  to  be 
located  a  certain  distance  from  dwellings,  he  himself 
gave  this  piece  of  land  to  the  commune.  We  are  to 
bury  a  poor  little  child  here  to-day:  thus  we  shall 
have  begun  by  placing  innocence  and  virtue  in  this 
spot.  Is  death  a  reward,  then.?  Does  God  teach 
us  a  lesson  by  summoning  two  spotless  creatures 
to  Him.?  Shall  we  go  to  Him  when  we  have  been 
thoroughly  tested  in  youth  by  physical  suffering, 
and  in  more  advanced  age  by  mental  suffering? 
See,  there  is  the  rustic  monument  we  have  raised 
to  him." 

Genestas  saw  a  pyramid  of  earth  about  twenty 
feet  in  height,  still  bare,  but  with  the  sods  beginning 
to  show  around  the  edges  beneath  the  busy  hands 
of  several  villagers.  La  Fosseuse  was  weeping 
bitterly,  her  face  hidden  in  her  hands,  seated  on  the 
stones  heaped  around  the  foot  of  an  immense  cross 
made  of  a  fir-tree  that  had  not  been  stripped  of  its 
bark. 


352  THE  COUNTRY  DOCTOR 

The  officer    read   these   words   carved   in  great 
letters  in  the  wood: 


*'D.    O.  M. 

HERE  LIES 

GOOD   MONSIEUR  BENASSIS 

OUR  FATHER. 

PRAY  FOR  HIM." 


**Was  it  you,  monsieur,"  queried  Genestas, 
"who—?" 

"  No,"  replied  the  cure,  "  we  used  the  words  that 
have  echoed  from  the  summits  of  these  mountains 
all  the  way  to  Grenoble." 

After  a  moment's  silence,  during  which  he  had 
drawn  near  to  La  Fosseuse,  who  did  not  hear  him, 
Genestas  said  to  the  cure: 

"  As  soon  as  I  am  retired,  I  will  come  and  end  my 
days  among  you." 

October  1832 — July  1833. 


LIST  OF  ETCHINGS 


VOLUME  XXXVIII 

PAGB 

IN  THE  BENASSIS  BARN Fronts. 

THE  ORPHAN  ASYLUM i6 

THE  PONTONNIER  OF  THE  BERESINA I20 

A  VISIT  TO  LA  FOSSEUSE l6o 

EVELINA  TO  M.  BENASSIS 296 


38  C.  H.,C.  Dr.,  N.  &R.  353 


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